#5 - It is commonly held among marketing experts that in a

[marieallen]

Is there an explanation for this stimulus (re "It is commonly held among marketing experts)? Thanks in advance.

[Malila Robinson]

Hi Marie,
The stimulus is saying that marketing experts tend to agree that companies in a nonexpanding market should 'run comparative advertisements that point out the weaknesses in their competitors products, in order to gain market shares' (which are a larger percentage of the market).

The stimulus then points out a possible downfall to this strategy by presenting an example from the edible oil market, which used comparative advertisements pointing out the weaknesses in their competitors products, but instead of allowing any edible oil market to gain market shares (a higher percentage of the market), instead the stimulus stated that their market share did not change, but the number of people buying edible oils dropped (which means the total edible oil market has shrunk).

This makes D the correct answer. While comparative advertising may, in general, be a good strategy to gain market shares, it still runs the risk of shrinking the overall market in some instances.
Hope that helps,
Malila

[marieallen]

Thank you!