Problem

Print Media Advertising (PMA) has been given a contract to the market Buzz Cola through newspaper ads in a major southern newspaper. Full-page ads in weekday editions (Monday through Saturday) cost $2000, while on Sunday a full-page ad costs $8000. Daily circulation of newspaper is 30,000 on weekdays and 80,000 on Sundays.

PMA has been given a $40,000 advertising budget for month of the August. The experienced advertising executives at PMA feel that both weekday and Sunday newspaper ads are significant; therefore they wish to run the equivalent of at least eight weekday and at least two Sunday ads during August. (Suppose that a fractional ad would simply mean that a smaller ad is placed on one of the days; that is, 3.5 ads would mean three full-page ads and one half-page ad. Also, suppose that smaller ads diminish exposure and costs proportionately.) This August has 26 weekdays and 5 Sundays.

The objective is to find out the optimal placement of ads by PMA in the newspaper throughout August so as to maximize the cumulative total exposure (as measured by circulation) for the month of August.

a) Formulate linear programming model for the problem.
b) Use Graphical method to find out the optimal solution. Show all steps.
c) Use Excel Solver to find out the optimal solution. Copy and paste your spreadsheet and the Answer report in its entirety from Excel.

Remember to not modify /delete any part of the Answer Report.

Here is how the spreadsheet was set up for Excel Solver. The spreadsheet shows 10 weekdays and 10 for Sundays.  These numbers were selected arbitrarily. Any quantities can be entered weekdays and Sundays since Excel Solver would find the optimal solution anyway.