The Kano model is a customer satisfaction framework developed by Japanese researcher Noriaki Kano in the 1980s. It categorizes customer preferences into five distinct categories: basic, performance, excitement, indifferent, and reverse. The model helps businesses understand the relationship between product features and customer satisfaction, allowing them to prioritize and improve their offerings accordingly. By identifying which features are expected, desired, or unexpected by customers, the Kano model enables companies to deliver products that not only meet but exceed customer expectations, leading to increased customer loyalty and market success.