Self-study
Social observer: Advertising agencies are willfully neglecting the most profitable segment of the market: older adults. █████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████████ ███████████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ █████ ███████
Summary
The author concludes that if ad agencies gear their ads mainly to older adults, then they can maximize their clients’ profits. This is based on the fact that older adults control most of this nation’s disposable income.
Missing Connection
We have no compelling reason to believe that targeting older adults will maximize profits. Sure, older adults may control most of the nation’s disposable income. But that doesn’t imply that ads targeted toward them will get them to spend more money than ads targeted toward other groups.
To make the argument valid, we want to establish the following relationship:
If ad agencies target their ads toward a group of people who control most of this nation’s personal disposable income, that will maximize their clients’ profits.
20.
Which one of the following, ██ ████████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ██ ████████ █████████
a
Older people generally ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ███████
This might explain why older people control most of this nation’s personal disposable income. But (A) doesn’t establish that targeting ads toward this group of people will maximize profits. Older people might not spend as much in response to ads compared to other groups of people.
b
No company can ████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ███████
(B) establishes that if a company does NOT market its products toward a population that controls most of the disposable income, then a company will NOT maximize its profits. But we’re trying to establish that if a company DOES gear its ads toward a population that controls most disposable income, that it CAN maximize its profits.
c
Advertising that is ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ███ █ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
(C) can establish that a particular advertising strategy would do the best to “improve the reputation” of a company’s products. But this doesn’t establish what can maximize profits.
d
No advertising agency ████ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████
(D) establishes that if you tailor your ads to people who don’t control a lot of disposable income, you won’t maximize clients’ profits. But we’re trying to establish companies CAN maximize profits by targeting a certain group.
e
Any advertising agency ████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ █ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████
Older adults control more than 50% of the nation’s disposable income (because they control more than does the rest of the population combined). (E) establishes that gearing ads toward this group of people will maximize profits.