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Greenville Times - Evaluation Question

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Greenville Times - Evaluation Question

by monusangeeta » Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:16 am
Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville Times reorganized its advertising sales force. Before
reorganization, the sales force was organized geographically, with some sales representatives concentrating on citycenter
businesses and others concentrating on different outlying regions. The reorganization attempted to increase the
sales representatives' knowledge of clients' businesses by having each sales representative deal with only one type of
industry or of retailing. After the reorganization, revenue from advertising sales increased.

In assessing whether the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization, it would be
most helpful to find out which of the following?

(A) What proportion of the total revenue of the Greenville Times is generated by advertising sales?
(B) Has the circulation of the Greenville Times increased substantially in the last two years?
(C) Among all the types of industry and retailing that use the Greenville Times as an advertising vehicle, which type
accounts for the largest proportion of the newspaper's advertising sales?
(D) Do any clients of the sales representatives of the Greenville Times have a standing order with the Times for a fixed
amount of advertising per month?
(E) Among the advertisers in the Greenville Times, are there more types of retail business or more types of industrial
business?



The correct answer in OG is B, can some one please explain.
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by hardik.jadeja » Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:53 am
I find OG explanation pretty good for this question. Let us know what difficulty you are facing wrt to this question.

Here's OG explanation.

Situation: In the face of declining advertising sales, a newspaper reorganizes its sales force so that sales representatives have a better understanding of businesses. Revenue from advertising sales increased after the reorganization.

Reasoning:
What additional evidence would help determine the source of the increased revenue? In order to attribute the increased revenue to the reorganization of the sales force, other possible causes must be eliminated. Newspaper advertising rates are linked to circulation; when circulation increases, higher rates can be charged and revenues will increase. An alternate explanation might be a significant rise in circulation, so it would be particularly helpful to know if circulation had increased.

A The question concerns only increased revenue from advertising sales; the proportion of advertising revenue to total revenue is outside the scope of the question.

B Correct. This statement provides another possible explanation for increased revenue of advertising sales, and so the answer to this question would help to clarify the reason for the increased revenue.

C Knowing how the advertising sales break down by type of business might be useful for other purposes, but it does not help to show the cause of the increase.

D A fixed amount of advertising would not explain increased revenue, so the answer to this question would be irrelevant.

E Distinguishing between the types of businesses will not contribute to determining whether the reorganization was responsible for the increased revenue.

The correct answer is B.
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by sumanr84 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:56 am
A very similar question from GMATPrep,Try out for better understanding..
Refer this as Q2: ( to avoid conflict with prev Q)
Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenville Times reorganized its advertising sales force two years ago. Before the reorganization, the sales force was organized geographically, with some sales respresentatives concentrating on city-center businesses and others concentrating on different outlying regions. The reorganization attempted to increase the sales representatives' knowledge of clients' businesses by having each sales representative deal with only one type of industry or of retailing. After the reorganization, advertising sales increased.

In assessing whether the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization , it would be helpful to find out each of the following EXCEPT:

A) Two years ago, what proportion of the Greenville Times's total revenue was generated by advertising sales?

B) Has the circulation of the Greenville Times increased substantially in the last two years?

C) Has there been a substantial turnover in personnel in the adverstising sales force over the last two years?

D) Before the reorganization, had sales representatives found it difficult to keep up with relevant developments in all types of businesses to which they are assigned?

E) Has the economy in Greenville and the surrounding regions been grwoing rapidly over the last two years?

[spoiler]OA : A[/spoiler]
Last edited by sumanr84 on Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by paddle_sweep » Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:00 am
But how evaluation of circulation of last two years helps? What's the significance of 'two' here? It could have been 6 months or anything.
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by monusangeeta » Thu Jun 24, 2010 2:12 am
Hi,

Thanks for the help. I just realised...may b option B is not the ideal answer, but it is the best among the given options. However, i was not able to understand the relation between circulation and adv. revenue.

Regards
Sangeeta
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by kvcpk » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:48 am
How is the link made between 'reorganization' and 'circulation'?

The question is looking for benefit of 'reorganization' and the answer doesnt seem to even care about it.

I am unable to accept OG's answer. Any other thoughts?
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by selango » Fri Jun 25, 2010 2:04 am
The argument states that the increased revenue is attributed to Reorganization of sales force?

In order to evaluate this argument,we need to check whether any other reasons are there to increase the revenue?

Apply variance test to evaluate to Option B

If the answer is YES,then the increase in circulation contribute to the increase in revenue.

If the answer is NO,then the increased revenue is attributed to Reorganization of sales force.

Applying variance test to other options,the answers will be irrelevant in evaluating the argument.

So option B is the best answer.
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by kvcpk » Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:54 am
selango wrote:The argument states that the increased revenue is attributed to Reorganization of sales force?

In order to evaluate this argument,we need to check whether any other reasons are there to increase the revenue?

Apply variance test to evaluate to Option B

If the answer is YES,then the increase in circulation contribute to the increase in revenue.

If the answer is NO,then the increased revenue is attributed to Reorganization of sales force.

Applying variance test to other options,the answers will be irrelevant in evaluating the argument.

So option B is the best answer.
Hi Selango.. what is meant by Variance Test? Is it the same as negating the answer choice?
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by selango » Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:00 am
Variance test is a method used in Powerscore CR Bible for Evaluate arg questions.

The variance test consists of supplying two opposite answers(for ex YES/NO) to the question posted in answer choices and analyzing how the varying response affect the conclusion.If different response affect the conclusion (ie) strengthen/weaken the conclusion,then the answer choice is correct.

If different response does not produce different effect,then the answer is incorrect
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by kvcpk » Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:15 am
selango wrote:Variance test is a method used in Powerscore CR Bible for Evaluate arg questions.

The variance test consists of supplying two opposite answers(for ex YES/NO) to the question posted in answer choices and analyzing how the varying response affect the conclusion.If different response affect the conclusion (ie) strengthen/weaken the conclusion,then the answer choice is correct.

If different response does not produce different effect,then the answer is incorrect
That makes sense.. Thanks for a new learning today..
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by gmat1011 » Fri Jun 25, 2010 6:02 am
In the original question posted by "monusangeeta" I still am not convinced how B is the best in the lot of answers (all seem rotten!) - on a first read B seems pretty unhelpful

There is no indication as to when the reorganization happened - 1 day ago? 1 week ago? 3 years ago?

So lets say if the reorg happened 7 days ago then how would the answer to the question: "(B) Has the circulation of the Greenville Times increased substantially in the last two years?" be helpful in any way as that 2 year period would include the pre-reorg period as well?? The only way to get over that hurdle is to pay close attention to the first few lines: "Following several years of declining advertising sales" --- so the pre-reorg period cannot contribute to any increase in revenue in the last 2 years => the reorg happened atleast 2 years ago and therefore it is a relevant question to answer.... I suppose that is the chain of thought?

The GMATPrep variation of this question explicitly mentions the that the re-org happened 2 years ago... and that info is useful it seems to me...
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by paddle_sweep » Sat Jun 26, 2010 10:48 pm
gmat1011 wrote:In the original question posted by "monusangeeta" I still am not convinced how B is the best in the lot of answers (all seem rotten!) - on a first read B seems pretty unhelpful

There is no indication as to when the reorganization happened - 1 day ago? 1 week ago? 3 years ago?

So lets say if the reorg happened 7 days ago then how would the answer to the question: "(B) Has the circulation of the Greenville Times increased substantially in the last two years?" be helpful in any way as that 2 year period would include the pre-reorg period as well?? The only way to get over that hurdle is to pay close attention to the first few lines: "Following several years of declining advertising sales" --- so the pre-reorg period cannot contribute to any increase in revenue in the last 2 years => the reorg happened atleast 2 years ago and therefore it is a relevant question to answer.... I suppose that is the chain of thought?

The GMATPrep variation of this question explicitly mentions the that the re-org happened 2 years ago... and that info is useful it seems to me...
Exactly! Not sure how 'B' could be the correct answer.
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