tastecard Brand bible
The brief
tastecard are a membership brand offering discounts on everything from food and films to theme parks and shopping. Founded back in 2005, the brand was recognised for its products and discounts, but not its branding as it never defined a visual identity or tone of voice.
The solution
tastecard needed a rebrand. Going on a full discovery project, we found the main target audience for tastecard was the young metropolitans. These are the people who love to save money, but invest in brands with character, guts and a little humour.
The execution
Myself and the lead designer delivered a 122 page brand bible including every little last thing to know about the new tastecard. We fleshed out a brand story and timeline, crafted a mission, built internal values, created a four-tier target audience, and switched up the brand proposition from just dining to lifestyle saving. To satisfy the young metropolitans, we developed a new aesthetic direction featuring bold colours and fluid shapes, alongside a shiny new tone of voice. The tastecard rebrand has since been rolled out business wide and has solidified itself as a recognisable brand.
As the tastecard brand bible is an internal piece of work, I can only share tone of voice snippets.
the new tov: tastetalk
Creating a tone of voice from scratch for tastecard, I had complete free reign. With the young metropolitan audience and new playful visuals in mind, I crafted a language with conversational character. As the only and lead copywriter, I provided the business with a detailed guide to adopting the new tastecard language, called tastetalk. It featured everything from tone of voice pillars and a tastetalk translator, to copy commandments and brand positioning to make it easy to type, read and think in.
The four tastetalk pillars
The tastetalk translator
Tastecard AS A VERB
Uber, Spotify, Deliveroo and Hoover have taken their brands and turned them into a verb , dominating the space. By introducing tastecard as verb, e.g. Ready to tastecard it?, the aim was to set the brand up as the discount dining membership.
The tasteament
With a product that enhances people’s lives by offering discounts on all kinds of experiences, the tastecard manifesto needed to embody just that. Combining the product benefits with day-to-day scenarios, we wanted to show there’s a tastecard discount for every occasion.
Internal brand comms
With a complete rebrand, it was a must to get the full business excited and onboard. Pre-launch, we hosted a mini workshop and provided everyone with a printed recipe-themed flyer to give them a taste of what was to come.
TOV Cheat sheet for Customer Care
To fully brand a business and product, every touch point needs to be consistent. I created a tone of voice cheat sheet for the tastecard Customer Care team to have to hand when answering calls and emails, and responding the social posts and Trustpilot reviews.
