Question: FitnessTown

Comment on FitnessTown

Can't we say that conclusion is "campaign is successful"

Answer D, states that there may be another reason for the success. Thus, it hurts the argument's conclusion which is "campaign is successful"
gmat-admin's picture

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.

In the above question stem, what needs to be refuted is the claim that the campaign has been a huge success (measured by increase in memberships because of the use of the word since).

Campaign = free locker, free consultation & free tanning beds

Therefore, the claim can also be read as: free locker, free consultation & free tanning beds has led to success (increase in membership)

The option that weakens this argument is option B. Free stuff didnt entice any members (first time joiners or joiners of other fitness clubs)which weakens the campaign success claim

Please help me where I went wrong.

gmat-admin's picture

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.

Hi Brent,

Even I had considered answer choice B on the same basis. But this explanation of yours gives me reasonable doubt on my answer choice. But what I fail to understand is how the answer is A. Going by your reasoning for not selecting answer choice B as it didn't attract club members away (Stole) from other fitness clubs, similarly in answer choice A, the new members haven't joined any club prior to joining FitnessTown. So in effect, they were not stolen from other fitness clubs. So how come the answer choice A is correct?

Can you please help me with my doubt here?
gmat-admin's picture

The goal of the campaign was to attract members away FROM OTHER FITNESS CLUBS in the city, and the marketing team says that the campaign was a success. In other words, the marketing team feels that they must have attracted members away FROM OTHER FITNESS CLUBS.

Answer choice A says that the new members WERE NOT members away from other fitness clubs. So, this weakens the argument.

Hi Admin,

When the marketing team says that the campaign was a success and connects this statement with a "since" keyword, doesn't it shifts the focus of the conclusion towards the fact that the reason for success has been attributed to the increase in membership? Now, this increase in membership is assumed to be due to the freebies that they are providing.So the option that can refute to this assumption could be the one that the 20 % increased members were genuinely attracted & not due to the campaign?
Please help me know how can I avoid such incorrect assumptions for such questions.
gmat-admin's picture

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 admin,
That was a superb analogy. Cleared all the doubts. Thanks a lot.

Hello :)

I made my structure as following
P : New marketing campaign
A : no other effects with the increase but the marketing
C : Marketing campaign itself was a huge success

You stated that this kind of conclusion is vague and is only part of the conclusion. On the perspective of the marketing team, the success of the campaign itself would have been their main issue regardless of the object of the club, which is to steel members. Thus I made my answer as B. B weakens the marketing teams' claim that their campaign was a success since there could have been other reasons with the increase in members if B is true. I know this kind of approach is wrong, since you gave tons of explanations above :( Then my questions goes with, should we try to find the true or hidden meanings inside the passage while we are trying to find the conclusion? Is it not always the best way to stick with the words written in the question stem? ( I focused on the "claim" of the marketing team) In what case can we know there are hidden meanings and so on? ( as such in the passage it starts with "to attract ~ "

Thank you !
gmat-admin's picture

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

Thank you for your help :)

Hi Brent, If we look closer to the question stem it clearly states that "What would refute the CLAIM BY MARKETING TEAM" and not the conclusion. The argument clearly mentions that the marketing team' claim was that "their MARKETING CAMPAIGN IS A HUGE SUCCESS" which we should refute. The only possible answer that I could refute with this claim is "B". Am I missing something?
gmat-admin's picture

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

Wow. This was a really good one, Brent. I completely ignored the part which details out what success would mean to the marketing campaign people and eliminated A. Thank you. I really got to be careful, next time.

The claim that the membership has increased falls apart because the people had never visited any fitness club. Earlier it was almost 0. So, people have just started coming in. Hence there is no question of an increase from the previous days.
gmat-admin's picture

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

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent, as per your lesson 2-dissecting an argument, you thought us the Premise- therefore - conclusion test to figure out the conclusions. If we apply that here, it says they attracted other fitness club member, therefore, the campaign has been a success. So the conclusion is that the campaign is a success. Why are you not applying that rule here? Thanks!
gmat-admin's picture

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

Great Example! thanks! so the conclusion "campaign is successful" is vague, "they stole other fitness members" is more precise.

does that also mean we cannot apply the "premis-therefore-conclusion" test for all questions types?

gmat-admin's picture

We can still use that strategy.
All we're doing with the video question is taking a vague conclusion and adding a bit more meaning to it.

Cheers,
Brent

Hello. I have a lot of difficulty with these kind of questions. But what I am seeing is that a lot of traps are set up with "Some" or "One" answers. Would it be wise to keep that in mind to make sure I don't choose that answer incorrectly?
gmat-admin's picture

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.

"To attract members from other fitness clubs in the city" I think according to this sentence members means both new customers and current customers in other clubs.Your explanation is based only by considering current customers in other clubs.I may be wrong.Please clarify....
gmat-admin's picture

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

Would answer choice E be Out-of-scope?
gmat-admin's picture

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

I had to say some choices are really tricking me into choosing them, Although your explanation is great. how do I avoid them in the first place?
gmat-admin's picture

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.

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