2.2 MARKETING APPLICATIONS 24 A brand can be protected with a trademark. If a brand is not trademarked, other people can use it without fear of any penalty. Typography is the art of arranging letters and characters in a visually appealing manner. Philip Kotler, defined as the fourth management guru of all times by the Financial Times, describes brand positioning as: the planning of the company s offering and image necessary to occupy a distinctive place in the consumer s mind and in the reference market. BRANDING AND BRAND POSITIONING Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a company in the minds of the target audience. It is about how customers perceive a brand, and involves creating positive and memorable experiences for them with the objective of making the brand stronger. Branding is, basically, the objective of marketing. What is a brand? Brand is the real identity of a business; it is an abstract concept which includes all the information that helps customers identify and differentiate a specific business from all the others. Whenever customers experience a brand by trying its products, looking at its promotional material, interacting with its employees, and hearing about it, they slowly shape their idea of that brand in their mind. What s in a brand? A brand summarises a company s identity, image, personality, character, culture, and reputation. It includes: how a company looks and sounds through its name, logo, colour scheme, typography , imagery, patterns, music/jingles, and tagline; what a company stands for, its core values, beliefs, and style; awareness: consapevolezza tagline: slogan 64 the emotions it arises in the target market: brands aim at connecting with people on an emotional level, interacting and building a relationship with them, and they also try to appear more human and relatable; MARKETING ANd AdvERTIsING the collective perception of a company s image through the eyes of its customers, employees, and stakeholders shaped by its past actions, marketing efforts, customer experiences, and public relations. All these elements determine the value of a brand in a marketplace; the measurement of how aware a consumer is of a particular brand is called brand awareness. Brand positioning and brand strategy Brand positioning is a marketing strategy that consists of working on the place the brand occupies in the mind of the customers compared to competition. Consumers, in fact, more or less consciously, assign a position to each brand in a specific sector and it is this position that they take into account when they have to make a purchase. A good brand strategy works on positioning and defines these key aspects: Mission, the who, what, and why behind a business; Values, what the company stands for; Vision, the definition of a business s long-term objectives; Target audience: the ideal customers.