Boston College

Math for Management Science

Solution Key
MT235
Group Project Part I I
Fall 2004
This is Part II of your group assignment. It is due on Thursday, October 28. Specific
instructions for submitting your work are given below. Part II is worth 50% of the total
Group Project Grade. It is based on the Case Saving the Manatees which was
distributed on Thursday, October 14 and on the model, spreadsheet and sensitivity report
which are attached.
The assignment for this part is as follows:
Your group has been hired as consultants by Tom Weibolt, the president of Friends of
the Manatees. Your job is to answer the questions given below. Your report to Tom
must be in the form of a memo with each question answered as a separate bullet point.
You may attach appendices as needed but these should be kept to a minimum. Here are
the specific questions.
1. (5 points) How should Tom allocate the $300,000 donation? What will the total impact
of these allocations be?
The recommended allocation is:
46 half-page ads in daily papers
2 full-page ads in daily papers
6 half-page ads in Sunday papers
2 full-page ads in Sunday papers
29 daytime TV adds (this is rounding down the solver solution so as to stay within budget
and still satisfy the maximums and minimums)
28 evening TV ads
10 billboard ads
140 fifteen minute radio ads
140 thirty minute radio ads
9 half-page magazine ads
3 full-page magazine ads
The total impact is 23,522.60-(.56)(85)=23,475. Notice that rounding had less than a
1% effect on total impact.

2. (5 points) Tom has just received new data that indicates that Billboard advertising has a
greater impact. Specifically, the data shows that the unit impact rating for highway
billboards is 55. How does this new information effect the optimal allocation and total
impact? Explain your answer based on the sensitivity report (DO NOT RESOLVE THE
MODEL).
The increase in billboard impact does not effect the allocation (it is within the range of
optimality). The recommendation already includes the maximum number of billboards.
The total impact will increase by (55-35)(10)=200
3. (5 points) Tom has also been contacted by a magazine industry representative. This
representative argued that the unit impact rating for full-page magazine ads should be 70.
Tom has questioned this assertion but would still like to know what the effect of this
change would be. Use the sensitivity report to tell Tom as much as you can about how
this change will effect the optimal allocation and total impact (DO NOT RESOLVE THE
MODEL).
If this change is true (it is outside of the range of optimality) the recommended allocation
will change. It will be necessary to resolve the model to be more specific. The new
solution will likely include more full-page ads and fewer half-page ads and the total
impact will likely go up.
4. (5 points) Tell Tom the average unit impact rating per dollar and the marginal unit
impact rating per dollar and explain the meaning of each and why they are different.
The average unit impact rating per dollar is (23,475/300,000)=.078. The marginal
impact rating is .034 (the shadow price for the budget constraint). The marginal value is
less because at the current budget level each additional dollar has a smaller unit impact.
5. (10 points) Tom will be curious about the interpretation of the shadow prices and in
particular why some are positive and some are negative. Tom wonders if the positive or
negative sign has to do with the constraint being a minimum or maximum. Explain the
meaning of the shadow prices for Full-page Sunday minimum and for Billboard
maximum.
The shadow price for full-page Sunday minimum is -5.4. This means that if Tom were
to require at least 3 full-page Sunday ads the total impact would go down by 5.4. This is
because full-page Sunday ads are relatively more expensive per unit impact than other
advertising options.
The shadow price for Billboards maximum is 9.5. This means that if Tom were to allow
one more billboard ad the total impact would go up by 9.5. This is because billboard ads
are relatively less expensive per unit impact than other advertising options.

6. (5 points) The Highway Department has just approved five additional highway
billboard sites. Tom, being an environmentalist, is generally opposed to billboard
advertising. However, you should use the sensitivity report to tell Tom as much as you
can about how the availability of more billboards will effect the optimal allocation and
total impact (DO NOT RESOLVE THE MODEL).
Each of the additional five billboards will increase the total impact (this change is within
the range of feasibility) by 9.5 for a total increase of (5)(9.5)=47.5. The actual budget
allocations will change and it will be necessary to resolve the problem to determine
these.
7. (5 points) Tom thinks that it might be best to use $50,000 from the donation to directly
lobby the state legislature. If Tom does this he will have $50,000 less to spend on
advertising. Use the sensitivity report to tell Tom as much as you can about how this
change will effect the optimal allocation and total impact (DO NOT RESOLVE THE
MODEL).
Total impact will go down and the allocation will change. To specifically analyze these
changes it will be necessary to resolve the problem (the change is outside the range of
feasibility).
8. (10 points) Tom is very interested in the tradeoff between the total cost of advertising
and the total impact of advertising. To help Tom understand this tradeoff RESOLVE
THE MODEL with the advertising budget set at each of the following levels: $200,000;
$250,000; $300,000; $350,000; $400,000; $450,000, and $500,000. The model will need
to be solved a total of seven times. At some of these levels you may get a solution that is
not feasible. If this occurs please explain what it means (from a management
perspective). Then use Excel to create a plot with total cost of advertising on the
horizontal axis and total impact of advertising on the vertical axis. Plot all of the points
you obtained by resolving the model (do not include any points which were not feasible)
and connect these points. Attach this plot to your memo and in the memo explain to Tom
what this plot means. It is NOT NECESSARY to attach a separate spreadsheet or
sensitivity report for each time you solved the model.
A budget of $200,000 results in no feasible solution. This means that this budget is not
sufficient to meet the minimum advertising levels. The remaining solutions are as follows
(for this purpose none of the solutions were rounded):
Total Cost of Advertising
Total Impact of Advertising
$250,000
18,877.50
$300,000
23,522.60
$350,000
25,222.60
$400,000
26,922.60
$450,000
28,610.00
$500,000
30,038.57
A plot of this data is attached. This plot shows that from $250,000 to $300,000 there is a
steep increase in Total Advertising Impact and that in each interval above that the impact

increase lessens. Tom can use this plot to determine if additional advertising is worth the
money.