Question: FitnessTown

That conclusion is too vague. What constitutes success? Staying under budget? Increasing brand awareness? Reducing expenses? The goal of the campaign is to attract members away from other fitness clubs. So, when the marketing team says the campaign is a success, they are suggesting that the campaign accomplished the goal of attracting members away from other fitness clubs.

You're assuming that the goal of the campaign was to increase membership. This is not mentioned anywhere.

In fact, the goal of the campaign appears in the first 11 words: "In order to attract members away FROM OTHER FITNESS CLUBS in the city..."

So, when the marketing team says the campaign was a success, they are suggesting that the campaign accomplished the goal of attracting members AWAY from other fitness clubs.

So, given this goal, if FitnessTown were able to get 1 million new members, BUT none of those new members were formerly members from other fitness clubs, then the campaign would NOT be successful.

Answer choice B weakens the argument ONLY IF the conclusion were something like "The new members bought FitnessTown memberships BECAUSE OF THE special offers (free locker, free consultation & free tanning beds). However, since this conclusion is not stated in the argument, answer choice B is incorrect.

It all comes down to WHY Fitness Town launched the campaign..."to attract members away from other fitness clubs in the city."

So, the campaign is a success IF members of other fitness clubs join Fitness Town.

The difficult thing about this question is that the reader (a future MBA student) will, no doubt, see the 20% increase as a positive thing, and mistake the increase for the goal of the campaign.

Here's an analogous passage.

In order to lose weight, Joe starts a new diet. Two months later, Joe wins the Boston Marathon. Therefore the diet was a huge success.

While winning the Boston Marathon is fantastic, can we really say that the diet was a success?

Hi Celan,

If answer choice B were the correct answer, then the marketing team's goal would have been something like "Encourage new members to use the free services." Since this goal is not suggested anywhere in the passage, answer choice B cannot be correct.

I wouldn't say that the conclusion is hidden here. It's just that the conclusion cannot be directly quoted from the first half of the 2nd sentence. Instead, we need to locate the stated goal of the campaign. That goal is stated in the first words "To attract members away from other fitness clubs..."

Your question: In what case can we know there are hidden meanings and so on? ( as such in the passage it starts with "to attract ~

In most passages, the conclusion can be directly quoted from the passage. Other times, we find a partial conclusion that begs us to ask for more information.

For example, let's say a passage says something like "Gwen concluded that her trip to Italy had been a huge success."

This conclusion begs the following question: What does "huge success" mean to Gwen?

The same applies to the question in the video.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Good question, coolvinoo.

There are many different ways in which a marketing campaign might be considered successful (e.g., increased revenue, greater awareness, more traffic to the store/website, more referrals, etc.).

So, in order to determine whether this campaign is successful, we must first understand the campaign's goal.

That goal is stated in the first words "To attract members away from other fitness clubs..."

If answer choice B were the correct answer, then the marketing team's goal would have been something like "Encourage new members to use the free services." Since this goal is not suggested anywhere in the passage, answer choice B cannot be correct.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi userefca3c,
I'm a little uncertain of the point you are making.
Can you clarify?

Cheers,
Brent

The conclusion is, indeed, "The campaign is a success"

However, since we're ALSO told that the goal of the campaign is to steal/attract customers from other clubs, then saying that "The campaign is a success" is exactly the same as saying "We stole/attracted customers from other clubs"

Here's an analogous passage:
Joe's New Years resolution was to lose 20 pounds. After 5 months of dieting and working out, Joe achieved his New Years resolution.
One way to state the conclusion is to say "Joe achieved his New Years resolution."
Another way to state the conclusion is to say "Joe lost 20 pounds."

Both conclusions say the same thing, but the second one is more precise. The same applies to the original question.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Yes, be sure to take note when the correct answer hinges on one word, as well as any other wordings that might give you difficulty.

In the phrase "To attract members from other fitness clubs in the city," there's only one stated goal (attracting members from other fitness clubs)

Here's the official GMAT question that I based this question on: https://gmatclub.com/forum/to-entice-customers-away-from-competitors-red...

Cheers,
Brent

Yes, definitely. Whether or not the new members stay has no bearing on the goal of the campaign.

For many critical reasoning questions, the key is to avoid making unfounded assumptions.

For this question, many students will assume that SUCCESS means generating more revenue. However, the question states that the goal of the campaign is to "steal" customers from other fitness clubs.

So my advice would be to pay careful attention to the assumptions you're making.