Self-study
In an effort to boost sales during the summer months, which are typically the best for soft-drink sales, Foamy Soda lowered its prices. ██ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Even though the summer is usually the best for soft-drink sales and Foamy Soda lowered its prices, sales of Foamy Soda dropped during the summer months.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that does not help to explain why sales of Foamy Soda decreased in the summer, even though the company lowered its prices and the summer months are usually the best for soft-drink sales.
14.
Each of the following, if █████ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████ ███████████ █████████ █████ ███████
a
The soft-drink industry ██ █ █████ ███████████ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████
This contributes to reconciling the discrepancy because Foamy Soda’s low sales may be a result of an industry-wide decrease in demand. It could be that consumers just did not want as much soda this summer, regardless of the brand.
b
Foamy Soda's competitors ███████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████
This contributes to reconciling the discrepancy. If Foamy Soda’s competitors lowered their prices more than Foamy Soda did, consumers may have decided to go with the more heavily discounted options.
c
Because of an ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████
This does not contribute to reconciling the discrepancy. An increase in production costs does not explain why sales decreased, especially since Foamy Soda lowered its prices.
d
A strike at █████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████
The stores not receiving their normal shipments, and thus not being able to sell Foamy Soda as they usually do, could explain why sales of the product decreased during the summer months.
e
The weather during ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███████
A decrease in demand for soft drinks could explain why Foamy Soda experienced a decrease in sales, even with lower prices.