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Hi again! In an age of AI, well, everything, taste is quickly becoming an advantage. But…what is taste (much less good taste)? And how can brands bring taste into their campaigns? Let’s break it down.

TL;DR 👀

AI is making everything feel the same, which is where taste can become your brand’s competitive advantage.

Key Takeaway 💡

Ground your strategies in customer intent, product understanding, and real-time personalization to elevate your brand’s appeal.

Michael Lee

Strategic Editor

Time to take taste into account

AI has been a huge boon for marketing and merchandising teams, allowing them to generate, test, and launch campaigns much faster than before. However, faster output doesn’t automatically mean better customer experiences.

With all the focus on AI, your true business advantage isn’t speed — it’s taste. The problem is…taste is kind of hard to pin down.

What is “taste”?

Taste is often something people just know — we can point out when someone has “good” or “bad” taste, but we can’t always specify why.

That’s because good taste is multidimensional. It’s nuanced and should reflect different aspects of a person’s (or brand’s) history and preferences.

At the same time, it’s also intentional. Good taste won’t come from blindly following what AI outputs, but from being purposeful in what you want to convey.

But the biggest reason why taste is so hard to define is that it’s constantly changing. What counts as “good” taste will be shaped by world events, cultural shifts, and even just day-to-day moods.

How brands can operate with taste

With AI flattening how everything sounds and looks, brands with taste will be the ones standing out and engaging customers.

Here’s how you can make taste a part of your strategy:

Ground everything in customer intent

Taste is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. That’s why you should cater to the beholder.

AI should always work with customer intent front and center, whether it’s for search or marketing. When you can predict what customers want, they’ll naturally keep coming back to your brand for more.

Understand your products

Showing the wrong product at the wrong time will only leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth.

This is where good product data is crucial, especially when it’s unified in a single place. Having the right data in place allows AI to pull the products that match each customer’s unique preferences.

Personalize in real time

Taste can shift suddenly and at a whim, so if your brand is operating on old data and trends, you may already be out of vogue by the time your campaign is sent.

You need to use real-time personalization to ensure you’re always reaching customers based on their latest behaviors and interests.

Because when everyone can make more, taste is what makes it matter.

What’s to my taste lately

Coming of Age — Take a journey from childhood to your teenage years as you shape your personality, make friends, and realize your ambitions. It’s a game that really grows on you.

Kala by Colin Walsh — A group of friends reunites years after another friend’s disappearance and explores old wounds and harsh truths. The brilliant prose was kala-ing to me.

Infernal Affairs — Most people will have seen The Departed, which was a remake of this movie, but I prefer the original. Tense, subtle, and wonderfully paced — nothing about the film is a cop-out.

Tailoring AI to your taste

AI agents can handle a remarkable number of tasks, but they’re not always attuned to your brand’s needs and preferences.

Our hackathon back in June aimed to tackle this problem, with 83 teams coming together to create AI agents powered by their unique data and use cases.

Check out a retrospective on what the teams accomplished from our CPO, Anirban Bardalaye.

Read the Recap

That’s it for me! My task for you: Audit your strategies and see where you can inject more of your brand’s personality. And be sure to tune in for another edition of The Edge next week! Until then…