Self-study
A company that produces men's cologne had been advertising the product in general-circulation magazines for several years. ████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████ ████ █ █████████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
A men’s cologne company sold fewer products when it stopped advertising in magazines with diverse readers and instead focused on sports magazines with predominantly male readers. The company sells men’s products, so why did its sales drop when it directed its marketing towards men?
Objective
The correct answer will explain why, despite this cologne being designed for men, ads in sports magazines with male readers generated fewer sales than ads in magazines with all kinds of readers. Perhaps women frequently purchase men's cologne, or perhaps sports magazine readers are particularly unlikely to purchase cologne.
25.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████ ████ █████
a
Television advertising reaches ████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ███████ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████
This is irrelevant. Both ad campaigns in the stimulus were limited to magazines, so facts about television advertising can't help us explain the drop in sales.
b
The general-circulation magazines ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████████ ███████████ █ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ █████████
Firstly, we don’t know how widely the men’s sports magazines circulate, so we can’t use this to make a comparison. Secondly, we don’t how this timing lines up with when the company switched strategies. This just doesn't help us.
c
Most men do ███ ████ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ██████
This is irrelevant, because it would impact both ad campaigns equally. The correct answer must present a difference in the customers targeted by each type of magazine, which this does not.
d
Women often buy ███████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██████████
This explains why sales dropped when the company stopped advertising to the general population. If women are potential customers, then the company neglected a portion of their customer base when it switched to men's sports magazines.
e
Successful advertisements for █████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██████████ █████████
We don't know if the company used athletes in any of its ads, and if so, which ads those were. This doesn't give us enough information to explain why the ads in sports magazines underperformed.