Not following? Well good taste can be difficult to describe. So because you’re time poor and I’m writing the article, I did some research for us and dove into the inter-webs and found a Forbes article dedicated to describing and trying to unpack  ‘good taste’. It said: “You’ll likely hear good taste described as ‘it’s something you’re born with’ or ‘it’s in the eye of the beholder’ or as Former Justice Potter Stewart once said, ‘most of us know poor taste when we see it.’”

The dictionary’s definition of good taste reads, ‘The ability to recognize beauty in something.’ Well, here’s the thing about the dictionary’s definition, there was once a time I saw beauty in rocking vintage sweaters I’d found from the local Op Shop, packet dying my hair a dark colour, listening to Shania Twain on repeat very loudly in my Toyota Corolla, ‘91 model. Do I personally think of this phase in good taste? Some parts yes, some parts heck no. I’ll let you decide what’s what.

I digress, but there’s two elements I can conclude from the above research. 1. Everything has a phase. 2. Good taste is unique but there are common determining factors - flashback to the statement: ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’.

Ready for it? Branding and messaging also share these two elements. Messaging has phases, while your value and vision will remain constant we see changes in messaging as your brand evolves in the ever-changing market. Here’s an example that I’ve faced in my own business: In 2021 we had to transform how we talked about websites and digital marketing, before we used to reference it as 1 weapon you could use in your armoury of marketing weapons but, this had to dramatically change during / post COVID craziness. Our values stayed the same but there was more urgency needed and more intentionality needed when we talked about digital marketing as this was some brands only point of connection and communication with potential customers. And last, beauty is in the eye of the target audience, your brand doesn’t need to appeal to everyone, it just needs to be seen as ‘good taste’ to your target audience. The way we design a brand for an engineering company to a skincare brand is very very different, and for a very good reason - their target audiences are very different.

Often I’m in the room, usually with a coffee in hand, with business owners and decision makers who feel something is ‘missing’ from their brand. They don’t feel connected to it and they sense their customers also share the same feeling. 

We’ve built our team around creative professionals who know how to strategically work a brand's way out of this feeling, let’s call it the ‘off brand’ phase. We start with a strategic 2hr deep dive into your business, it allows us to fully submerse ourselves in your brand. In this session we have some valuable, intentional thinking time with tried and tested activities that will help to define your brand's personality, then from this understanding we can determine the right next steps. For every brand the next steps look different, for some it’s a rebrand, for others it’s a messaging overhaul / audit on all their collateral (print & digital) and for some it’s all of the above.

As always, I hope that these few thoughts resonate with you and if you need some creative assistance with developing your brand and getting a strategy in place. We are here, you know where to find us, we’re creative and ready.