One of the primary challenges facing advertising effectiveness researchers involves creating appropriate control frameworks to assess campaign perform...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
One of the primary challenges facing advertising effectiveness researchers involves creating appropriate control frameworks to assess campaign performance. These researchers must evaluate consumers who have encountered the advertising against consumers who remained unexposed yet possess comparable buying habits, demographic profiles, and media usage characteristics. Given that advertising campaigns are deployed throughout whole markets and researchers cannot regulate which consumers experience the advertisements during their routine activities, they therefore ______
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
ought to concentrate their research on consumers who deliberately pursue advertising content instead of those who experience it incidentally.
face substantial difficulties in establishing suitable control frameworks for evaluating campaign performance.
should restrict their research to markets where advertising campaigns have not been formerly implemented.
are unable to gather reliable information regarding consumer conduct before campaign contact.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'One of the primary challenges facing advertising effectiveness researchers involves creating appropriate control frameworks to assess campaign performance.' |
|
| 'These researchers must evaluate consumers who have encountered the advertising against consumers who remained unexposed yet possess comparable buying habits, demographic profiles, and media usage characteristics.' |
|
| 'Given that advertising campaigns are deployed throughout whole markets and researchers cannot regulate which consumers experience the advertisements during their routine activities,' |
|
| 'they therefore ______' |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Advertising effectiveness researchers face significant difficulties in creating proper control groups because they cannot control which consumers are exposed to advertisements.
Argument Flow: The passage identifies the main challenge researchers face (creating control frameworks), explains what this requires (comparing similar consumers with different exposure levels), then presents constraints that make this difficult (ubiquitous ad deployment and uncontrollable exposure), leading to a logical conclusion about the consequences.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage establishes that researchers need to create control groups (exposed vs unexposed consumers) with similar characteristics
- Ads are deployed everywhere in markets and researchers can't control who sees them
- This creates a logical problem: if you can't control exposure, you can't properly create the control groups you need
- The right answer should acknowledge that these constraints make it difficult or problematic for researchers to establish proper control frameworks
ought to concentrate their research on consumers who deliberately pursue advertising content instead of those who experience it incidentally.
✗ Incorrect
- Suggests focusing on consumers who actively seek ads vs those who encounter them incidentally
- This doesn't follow from the passage logic - the problem isn't about consumer intention, it's about researchers' inability to control exposure at all
face substantial difficulties in establishing suitable control frameworks for evaluating campaign performance.
✓ Correct
- Directly states that researchers 'face substantial difficulties in establishing suitable control frameworks'
- This perfectly matches the logical flow: challenge introduced → methodology needed → constraints explained → therefore difficulties result
- Uses the same key term 'control frameworks' from the opening sentence
should restrict their research to markets where advertising campaigns have not been formerly implemented.
✗ Incorrect
- Suggests restricting research to markets without previous campaigns
- This doesn't address the core problem - even in new markets, researchers still can't control who sees current ads
are unable to gather reliable information regarding consumer conduct before campaign contact.
✗ Incorrect
- Claims researchers can't gather reliable pre-campaign information about consumer behavior
- The passage doesn't suggest information gathering is the problem - it's about controlling exposure during campaigns