MARKETING. DAQ Electronics sells nearly 200 consumer electronics products to the general public under its own brand name, including computers, stereos, CD-ROMs, and radar detectors. DAQ’s annual budget for advertising in television, radio, newspapers, and its own circulars is $700,000. This year DAQ wishes to
spend at least half of its budget in television and radio, and it does not wish to spend more than $300,000 in any one advertising medium.
The company measures its success in exposure units, which are estimates of the audience reached per advertising dollar spent. The following table gives the relevant exposure unit estimates for the total public in general and for the various target populations DAQ wishes to reach.
a. Comment on the fact that a person may fit into more than one category. Does this violate any linear programming assumption?
b. Ignore the possible conflict in part (a) and formulate and solve a linear program that seeks to maximize the total overall exposure given the $700,000 budget and the restrictions imposed.
c. How would deleting the constraint that a total of at least $350,000 must be spent on television and radio affect the results?