Critical Reasoning

Kitchen magazine plans to license the use of its name by a line of cookware. For a magazine, licensing the use of its name for products involves some danger, since if the products disappoint consumers, the magazine's reputation suffers, with consequent reduction in circulation and advertising. However, experts have evaluated the cookware and found it superior to all other cookware advertised in Kitchen. Therefore, Kitchen can collect its licensing fees without endangering its other revenues.

The argument above assumes which of the following?
a. No other line of cookware is superior to that which will carry the Kitchen name.
b. Kitchen will not license the use of its name for any products other than the line of cookware.
c. Makers of cookware will not find Kitchen a less attractive advertising vehicle because the magazine's name is associated with a competing product.
d. Consumers who are not regular readers of Kitchen magazine will be attracted to the cookware by the Kitchen name.
e. Kitchen is one of the most prestigious cooking-related magazines.

akhpad wrote:Kitchen magazine plans to license the use of its name by a line of cookware. For a magazine, licensing the use of its name for products involves some danger, since if the products disappoint consumers, the magazine's reputation suffers, with consequent reduction in circulation and advertising. However, experts have evaluated the cookware and found it superior to all other cookware advertised in Kitchen. Therefore, Kitchen can collect its licensing fees without endangering its other revenues.

The argument above assumes which of the following?
a. No other line of cookware is superior to that which will carry the Kitchen name.
b. Kitchen will not license the use of its name for any products other than the line of cookware.
c. Makers of cookware will not find Kitchen a less attractive advertising vehicle because the magazine's name is associated with a competing product.
d. Consumers who are not regular readers of Kitchen magazine will be attracted to the cookware by the Kitchen name.
e. Kitchen is one of the most prestigious cooking-related magazines.

I will Pick C. A,B,E are either not impacting or out of scope.
D is focused on consumer mass, whereas C is centralized on the argument.
C says, makers will find kitchen more attractive... because of magazines name with competing product. The conclusion is derived from "However... found it superior to all other cookware... in kitchen" is based on the assumption that a superior product when advertised in kitchen magazine will be beneficial. This is what C says.

I'm also picking C.... My reasons are a little different, though...

P1: Kitchen magazine plans to license the use of its name by a line of cookware.
P2: If the products disappoint consumers, the magazine's reputation suffers, with consequent reduction in circulation and advertising.
P3: Experts have evaluated the cookware and found it superior to all other cookware advertised in Kitchen.
C1: Kitchen can collect its licensing fees without endangering its other revenues.

The magazine reasons that because the cookware is superior to anything else on the market it will not disappoint customers and the magazine will be able to maintain its reputation, circulation, advertising, etc. From this reasoning the magazine concludes that collecting licensing fees from licensing its name to a line of cookware will not endanger its other revenues. We need an assumption that supports this conclusion.

C. "Makers of cookware will not find Kitchen a less attractive advertising vehicle because the magazine's name is associated with a competing product." Correct. If companies find Kitchen a less attractive advertising vehicle because magazine's name is associated with a competing product, they will be less likely to advertise in the magazine. This would adversely affect the magazine's advertising revenue and invalidate the conclusion. Therefore, the magazine's conclusion assumes that this will not happen.

rkanthilal - good explanation, thanks

Kitchen magazine plans to license the use of its name by a line of cookware. For a magazine, licensing the use of its name for products involves some danger, since if the products disappoint consumers, the magazine's reputation suffers, with consequent reduction in circulation and advertising. However, experts have evaluated the cookware and found it superior to all other cookware advertised in Kitchen. Therefore, Kitchen can collect its licensing fees without endangering its other revenues.

The argument above assumes which of the following?
a. No other line of cookware is superior to that which will carry the Kitchen name.
b. Kitchen will not license the use of its name for any products other than the line of cookware.
c. Makers of cookware will not find Kitchen a less attractive advertising vehicle because the magazine's name is associated with a competing product.
d. Consumers who are not regular readers of Kitchen magazine will be attracted to the cookware by the Kitchen name.
e. Kitchen is one of the most prestigious cooking-related magazines.

i have a following doubt:
in option C which "makers of cookware " are we referring to ?
is it makers of cookware in general or is it the makers of cookware of this particular line which is trying to use the name of the kitchen magazine
i think that it should refer to "makers of cookware in general" and by not stating isn't C missing something ?
thanks and regards
aditya

thanks a ton sir
regards
aditya