Critical Reasoning

The athletic footwear industry was revolutionized years ago by the introduction of expensive products backed by celebrity athlete endorsements and sophisticated brand marketing on radio and television. Since then, it has become accepted that companies simply cannot compete in this industry without a great deal of media exposure. However, the most popular new brand of athletic footwear in the last year is not advertised on radio and television, and positions its product as "half the price - just as good."

Which of the following best explains the apparent discrepancy above?

The new brand of footwear is constructed along the same lines as the products made by more expensive brands.

The new footwear brand has several celebrity spokespeople who are not athletes.

Most of the new brand's customers have come from personal recommendations.

The company's novel marketing approach has been repeatedly covered on several popular news shows.

Last year, the new footwear brand had sales that were less than half of the sales of the leading brand in the field.

The answer is D due to the fact that even though the footwear is not advertised it gets a lot of media coverage by proxy

I was torn between C and D and finally chose D. I eliminated C because I thought option D gives more coverage than option C. Is my reasoning correct ??

i think B.

i think B.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation: The apparent discrepancy is that while it is accepted that a great deal of media exposure is needed to succeed in this field, the new brand has succeeded without radio and television ads. Choice D makes it clear that the brand does get media exposure - through the news stories - without actually advertising. While answer choice A might explain something about the new athletic brand's popularity, it does not address the issue of media exposure. Choice B is also incorrect as it too does not address the issue of media exposure. In choice C, we are told that one needs media exposure to compete,; but word-of-mouth is not media exposure, so this choice does not explain the apparent discrepancy. Choice E is incorrect as the additional information of sales of the new footwear brand compared with those of the leading brand is irrelevant background data.

the paradox is that the company in question is successful without media exposure.
Choice D still implies that there is still the media exposure by the medium of news stories.