Taste is Key Differentiator Way forward
I often did not have a great taste, actually I can't define taste exactly. There are bunch of different meanings and takes on Taste.
But AI changed everything for me, As we know as AI prevail more and more the importance for a Brain diminishes, Knowledge diminishes and Intelligence as well. Many say still we are superior but only because we built AI, but not in any other aspect we are better than AI. Still the most precious Life is of a Human But we are not the same anymore.
In few years(or decades or centuries) all the big researches, life changing break throughs will be made by AI. The competition of business becomes vague as everything is replacable.
So what makes a business, human or anything special, memorable or key differentiator? For now I say Taste.
My current View of this comes from consumer behavior, Business and products. because whenever you buy a product you either benchmark prices, Quality, stats & Core Benchmarking but with AI all these differences can be easily replicated, made better and the benchmarks often diminishes as the whole ecosystem plays a Game which is over sufficient.
So now everything is Fast, best and Gives great outcome. What and why should people care? Taste is not a differentiator until now and even if it is in few industries. the Final purchasing decision is made out of price, stats, offers and benchmarking.
But still what is Taste? is it the color, aesthetics, brand story, company Values, missions or their Niche specificity?
I call it everything that cannot be copied, But I can't define but make a story out of it.
I love Zerodha more than any other Stock broking company due to their values, missions, Founders , maybe I am biased due to my admiring Nikhil Kamath alot. or else by his philanthropy, maybe how his company never gives you push notification to buy, or maybe as their app alerts you with sensitive or high volatile stocks or penny stock purchases, or maybe they made a ecosystem of best apps, media and more. or maybe how they wanted people to educate personal finance with different Initiatives. You can show me 100 + benchmarks of minute changes, better apps and more of it but I can never change my broking account. Because as I aligned with their mission, vision, purpose and values as much.
Now their manifesto is not a color, aesthetic, feature or anything that favours a consumer and a consumer don't need to know about it at all. But not only me but many use Zerodha because of their Manifesto. So Taste does not have limits.
Now you can tell me that this is replacable but nobody moves, rather you should still be proud that they made their competetors move and served for the whole economy.
Taste is the reason many small franchise cafes are running even though they have a 10X prices of all the same standard cafes. Starbucks is great but a banglorean prefers Blue Tokai & Subko only because their taste should stand out of the crowd. their limited franchises makes them much more popular and less drama.
Taste often does not just come from your likings. But sometimes out of wanted to be an outlier which might not cost you more. buying a small company mobile might make it trivial but not going for a 1 hour cafe which is as premium as Starbucks and Hyped over Social Media.
Likewise there are many use cases, many reasons and many products we choose them and stick to them because of our bias. people usually tell you this product is best. but They never understand that its your taste(I have a whole another story for this).
This are all not the core reasons belonging to your Taste, but when the economy, AI and everything moves way forward and when they liked what you are using or wearing as a product. They should admit they like your taste. and ask why you choose this and you have your own reasons to say from manifesto, color, aesthetics, benchmarks, processor, engine, founder and what not.