Marketing strategist: Agency A designed an advertising campaign that our company is about to test with a focus group. We...

Phase 1: Owning the Dataset

Argument Analysis Table

Key Patterns Identified

• Established Facts:
  • A's campaign will be tested
  • B is contingency option
  • Positive focus group response eliminates need for B
• Critical Relationship: The passage establishes a clear if-then conditional
• Logical Implication: We can use contrapositive reasoning

Phase 2: Question Analysis & Prethinking

Understanding Each Part

• Part 1 (If): Looking for a condition that triggers a consequence
• Part 2 (Then): Looking for what must follow from Part 1
• Relationship: These must form a logically valid if-then statement

Valid Inferences Generated

From the passage's conditional statement:

1. Direct Reading: If positive response → Won't ask B
2. Contrapositive: If asks B → No positive response

The contrapositive gives us our strongest inference possibility.

Phase 3: Answer Choice Evaluation

Let me analyze each option:

1. "believes A's campaign will increase the company's name recognition"
   • This relates to the ultimate goal but isn't directly tied to the focus group conditional
2. "believes A's campaign will decrease the company's name recognition"
   • Not supported by passage facts
3. "asks B for a campaign"
   • This triggers our contrapositive logic
   • If this happens, something specific must be true
4. "asks A for an alternate campaign"
   • Not mentioned in passage
5. "believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign"
   • This follows necessarily if B is asked

Answer Selection Process

For Part 1 (If): Choice 3 - "asks B for a campaign"

• This is the trigger condition in our contrapositive

For Part 2 (Then): Choice 5 - "believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign"

• This must be true if B is asked (based on contrapositive logic)

Verification

The complete statement reads: "After the focus testing is complete, if the company asks B for a campaign, then it must also be the case that the company believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign."

This is logically valid because:

• Passage states: Positive response → No B
• Contrapositive: Ask B → No positive response
• Our answer captures this perfectly

Final Answer

If: asks B for a campaign
Then: believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign