1.5 Marketing Marketing and branding Marketing actions and processes to get to know 1. . ....................... and provide them with what they 2. . ....................... 3. . ....................... Branding real identity of a business resulting from the sum of all the 4. . ....................... customers have with a business objective of 5. . .......................: creating 6. . ....................... and memorable experiences for customers to make it stronger Businesses exist to provide goods or services. Customers have wants and needs to satisfy and have pain points (i.e. problems) to solve. Marketing is the activity in charge of making businesses and customers meet. ONLINE RESOURCES Marketing myopia all in all: nel complesso bandage: benda to bear in mind: tenere a mente better-off: in condizioni migliori drill bit: punta di trapano hardware store: ferramenta to hype: promuovere, sbandierare to perceive: percepire root: radice to stick: attaccarsi sweat: sudore to thrive: prosperare to trust: fidarsi ultimately: in definitiva underlying: sottostante, basilare wound: ferita 48 What is marketing? Businesses survive and thrive if they can offer customers what they want or need, if they solve their problems and make their lives easier. To do that, it is important that companies know what customers need, and, in order to find that out, businesses must understand customers, they must listen to them, they must observe them and they must care about them. Marketing is about having a deep psychological understanding of customers in order to be able to supply them with what they actually want, or even what they might want in the future, anticipating their desires. Its focus is not on the business, but on the customers, and this will, ultimately , allow businesses to have success and obtain the desired profits. All in all , marketing involves all those actions and processes which allow a business to get to know customers and provide them with exactly what they need, are waiting for or dreaming about. What is branding? A brand is an abstract concept which includes all the information (logo, slogan, name, design or any other feature) that helps customers identify and differentiate a specific business from all the others; it is the real identity of a business. Whenever customers experience a brand by trying its products, looking at its promotional material, interacting with its employees, hearing about it, or are connected with it in any way, either directly or indirectly, they slowly shape their idea of that brand in their mind. Branding is about how customers perceive a brand and involves using marketing in order to create positive and memorable experiences for customers with the objective of making the brand stronger. Branding is, basically, the objective of marketing: if a brand is strong, it attracts customers; if customers trust the brand, they buy its products; if the products solve their pain points, customers are happy; if sales go up, the company prospers and, as a consequence, customers are happy because they are better-off and companies are happy because they are richer.