Consumer's overall perception of the value of a purchase is based not just on assessing the product's inherent value (the acquisition value) but also in part on assessing the value of the "deal", i.e., the transaction value. To assess the transaction value, buyers tend to compare the sales price with another price, the "reference price", that they take to represent the product's real value - another advertised price for the same product or the price of a competing product. The more the reference price exceeds the sale price, the greater the transaction value. When advertising, retailers now routinely provide two prices: a suggested reference price and their actual selling price. Thus, when the selling price is held constant, consumers tend to perceive offers with higher suggested reference prices as presenting a better deal since they suggest greater savings.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A- Acquisition value does not affect consumers' assessment of transaction value.
B- Advertised reference prices may differ from manufacturers' suggested retail prices.
C- Consumers almost never pay the full advertised reference price for a product.
D- Consumers perceive most suggested reference prices in retailers' advertising to be sufficiently credible as a guide to transaction value.
E- Transaction value is more important than acquisition value in predicting consumer purchasing behavior.

OA:D

Source:GMATPrep EP1