ADVERTISING WITHIN THE BRANDING PROCESS OF THE CROATIAN WOOD INDUSTRY

Along with the entire economy, the wood industry in the Republic of Croatia also has to face strong and numerous competitors, both in the home and foreign markets. Solutions for survival and future development should be sought in market competition. Modern marketing increasingly uses branding as the means to increase sales and profit. Advertising as a part of the branding process is an unavoidable step toward creating a strong brand. To optimise the decision making process when selecting an appropriate media combination for advertising, in the paper linear programming is used, particularly a special case of linear programming – integer linear programming. One possibility is to use the technique for distribution of a fixed or limited budget across various media – radio or TV commercials, newspaper adverts, direct mail, etc. The other possibility is to use advertising space (and type of advertising) based on the greatest possible number of potential users that can be reached by the advertising message.