Canned Tuna

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Canned Tuna

by nervesofsteel » Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:18 pm
A year ago, Dietz Foods launched a yearlong advertising campaign for its canned tuna. Last year Dietz sold 12 million cans
of tuna compared to the 10 million sold during the previous year, an increase directly attributable to new customers
brought in by the campaign. Profits from the additional sales, however, were substantially less than the cost of the
advertising campaign. Clearly, therefore, the campaign did nothing to further Dietz's economic interests.
92
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?
(A) Sales of canned tuna account for a relatively small percentage of Dietz Foods' profits.
(8) Most of the people who bought Dietz's canned tuna for the first time as a result of the campaign were already loyal
customers of other Dietz products. 3
(C) A less expensive advertising campaign would have brought in significantly fewer new customers for Dietz's canned
tuna than did the campaign Dietz Foods launched last year.
(D) Dietz made money on sales of canned tuna last year.
(E) In each of the past five years, there was a steep, industry-wide decline in sales of canned tuna.

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by papgust » Wed Jan 06, 2010 6:25 pm
Answer must be E here

If there is a steep decline in sales of canned tuna in each of the last 5 years, then the advertising campaign has very much helped the company to increase its sales and thereby enhancing economic interests of Dietz's food.

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by nervesofsteel » Wed Jan 06, 2010 6:57 pm
papgust wrote:Answer must be E here

If there is a steep decline in sales of canned tuna in each of the last 5 years, then the advertising campaign has very much helped the company to increase its sales and thereby enhancing economic interests of Dietz's food.
Why is C wrong...??

If a less expensive campaign would have brought less customers and we know that the increase in sale is due
to newly added customers.. then this campaign has helped ..!!

Thanks

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by papgust » Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:17 pm
IMO C neither weakens nor strenghtens the argument. We are only looking to undermine the argument that campaign did nothing to further economic interests. We are not concerned whether a less expensive campaign would have brought in new customers or an expensive campaign would have brought in more new customers.

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by mehravikas » Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:32 pm
Agree. The answer should be E.
papgust wrote:IMO C neither weakens nor strenghtens the argument. We are only looking to undermine the argument that campaign did nothing to further economic interests. We are not concerned whether a less expensive campaign would have brought in new customers or an expensive campaign would have brought in more new customers.

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by nervesofsteel » Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:35 am
OA E

thanks all for sharing your point of view

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by kvcpk » Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:47 am
Sorry.. I am reopening this thread..

Can someone tell me why option A is wrong? There is no mention that canned tuna is the only product of deitz foods.

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by SmarpanGamt » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:00 am
kvcpk wrote:Sorry.. I am reopening this thread..

Can someone tell me why option A is wrong? There is no mention that canned tuna is the only product of deitz foods.
The argument is on Campaign cost and econmonic of campaign cost t odirect sales. Other products will neither strength or weaken the argument.

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by singalong » Thu Jul 28, 2011 5:07 am
But if the sales made were a part of the profits, which is apparently less, then wouldn't be the reason why the campaign didn't help in the process?

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by mankey » Sat Nov 19, 2011 11:22 pm
Someone please provide OA for this one.

Thanks.

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by singalong » Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:24 pm
a little help here experts..

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by Joseph_Alexander » Thu Nov 20, 2014 5:21 am
I was stuck between E and C here.

I eliminated E thinking that in the last 5 years (including the year in which 12MN (Yr 5 - and not Yr6) and 10MN (Yr 4) tins were sold) the industry was in a declining trend. So had the company not advertised so heavily in Yr 5, its sales would have been much lesser than 10MN tins, may be say 8MN tins (if the industry decline rate was 20%). Just because it advertised heavily it had 20% more sales than each of its competitors is the market. This certainly now is an economic benefit! :D

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by BTGmoderatorAT » Sat Sep 09, 2017 9:34 am
Is letter A wrong?
I assume Dietz Foods also has other products..

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Canned Tuna

by ErikaPrepScholar » Mon Sep 18, 2017 10:36 am
We want to weaken the argument that the campaign did nothing to further Dietz's economic interests. In other words, we want to support the argument that the campaign did further Dietz's economic interests.

Answer choice A is out of scope. Looking at the passage, we see that the campaign was for Dietz's canned tuna, not for any of its other products. Whether or not Dietz sells additional products, this question is about how a canned tuna campaign improves canned tuna sales. If this statement is true, Dietz still paid more for the canned tuna campaign than it got in canned tuna sales. Maybe since Dietz has other products, it isn't as big of a loss, but it's still a loss.

Answer choice C is similar. A less expensive campaign may have brought in fewer customers. That doesn't change anything about the campaign Dietz actually ran! Even if the campaign earned Dietz more customers than a less expensive campaign would have, the gain from the new customers is still lower than what Dietz spent on the campaign. A less expensive campaign may have been even less successful, but the campaign that actually happened still lost Dietz money.
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