Critical Reasoning

People buy a message about their identities when they buy a heavily branded product. They want to be associated with specific qualities that communicate something about their personalities. Changes to the logos, slogans, and marketing campaigns of successfully-branded products should not be made because __________.

purchasers who identify strongly with specific brands represent a shrinking portion of the population of all purchasers
continued sales depend directly on the maintenance of brand identity
purchasers of heavily branded products are concerned with quality and price as well as with the brand identity of the products
expansion of the market niche to include a broader spectrum of consumers will increase profits
manufacturing a heavily branded product is not necessarily more costly than manufacturing a generic version of the same product


OA B. Why not C

Good question, Rajat - the problem with C is that it doesn't give a reason for that conclusion. The fact that purchasers also value price/quality in addition to brand identity isn't a reason to keep the brand consistent. It doesn't weaken the conclusion either, but it's kind of irrelevant - it doesn't add any new value to the argument.

Where you may go wrong is with the phrase "as well as" (which seems to reaffirm that they do still care about brand), but keep in mind that reaffirming existing information doesn't strengthen an argument. Since B adds *new* information, it's correct (by connecting this identity with "direct sales dependence", we've added new value).

Hope that helps!