Your Brand Values Probably Suck…Sorry.

You walk into a job interview. The hiring manager asks: “So, what makes you unique?”

You answer, “I’m honest, hard-working, and nice.”

They nod, smile politely, and move on — because you just sounded like everybody else.

That’s exactly what most company brand values do. They’re safe, vague, and unimpressive. They might feel “corporate high-minded” and make the execs feel warm inside, but they won’t make anyone remember you.

Why “Quality, Integrity, Customer Service, Innovation” Are the Corporate Quartet of Meh

These four pop up everywhere. They’re not bad ideals — they’re just basically baseline expectations–they’re table stakes in the game of brand strategy. If I were a customer, employee, or partner, I assume you have them. Saying them doesn’t tell me why you’re different and may actually give me pause for concern that you felt the need to articulate basic business practice as your entire identity.

Here’s a quick tear-down of each, plus some supporting evidence for the curious and jaded, so you don’t have to trust me blindly.

Quality

What people hear: “Our stuff isn’t trash!”

Why it fails as a differentiator:

• Everyone wants quality. Saying it doesn’t tell me what about your quality — craftsmanship? consistency? durability? emotional experience.

• If something goes wrong, people assume you meant “quality” but didn’t deliver. It’s a promise that’s only as good as your weakest product, service call, or employee.

• “Quality” without specificity is like saying “I cook well” and not specifying whether you grill, bake artisan bread, can make a killer grilled cheese, or make soufflés.

Research to back me:

• Studies of perceived quality show that consumers heavily rely on specific cues (design, materials, durability) rather than generic “quality” claims. A brand’s image affects satisfaction only when quality is perceptibly better than competitors. PMC

• The “Mental Perception of Quality” paper (Ghobbe & Nohekhan, 2023) showed that green marketing (or any clearly defined dimension) improves perceived quality more than vague claims. Mental Perception of Quality

What a better value around “quality” might sound like:

• “Built to Outlast.”

• “Planned Endurance, Not Obsolescence.”

• “Defying wear, demand, and disappointment.”

Integrity

What people hear: “We don’t lie… most of the time.”

Why it fails:

• It’s a basic expectation, not a differentiator. Nobody openly claims they’re deceitful (though some slip).

• Integrity is easy to claim, hard to measure. Without examples or stories, it’s just lipstick on the pig.

• Overuse dulls it. If every competitor, nonprofit, startup, retailer, bank, and tech company says “we value integrity,” then it stops meaning anything.

Research / Evidence:

• Consumer research shows values matter more when consumers perceive authenticity, transparency, or accountability, not when they’re just buzzwords. Brands that only say “we value integrity” and don’t show it often suffer trust deficits. (A number of studies of brand distrust in young consumers cite this phenomenon.) ScienceDirect+1

• In “Young consumers’ brand distrust model: Understanding …” (2025), one of the triggers for distrust is seeing brands claim high moral values without evidence. ScienceDirect

Better alternatives:

• “When we say “never compromise,” we mean it — even when no one’s watching.”

• “We choose truth over convenience.”

• “We own our mistakes without excuses.”

Customer Service

What people hear: “We answer the phone, eventually.”

Why it fails:

• Everyone claims great customer service. But what exactly? Fast? Friendly? Solves problems? Proactive?

• It’s easy to perform some good customer service in good cases; far harder in difficult or crisis moments. If your value doesn’t speak to how you handle those moments, it’s toothless.

• Generic “customer service” often becomes lip service unless it’s built into metrics, hiring, systems, etc.

Supporting Data / Research:

• Research on customer perceived value shows that service quality is a separate dimension of perceived value — but only when customers believe the service differentiates. If multiple competitors promise same level, then service becomes just another cost of entry. Simon-Kucher+2SAGE Journals+2

• Value perception studies show that “non-functional” aspects (ease, responsiveness, emotional support) matter more when markets are saturated. Many customers expect basic service; only exceptional service stands out. Simon-Kucher+1

How to make “customer service” real:

• “We answer with empathy — even when the script and schedule say don’t.”

• “We make things right, not someone else’s fault.”

• “Resolving your problem becomes our problem until it is fixed.”

Innovation

What people hear: “We buy new software sometimes.”

Why it fails:

• Because everyone wants to be seen as cutting-edge. But “innovation” is so vague: is it product, process, business model, technology, culture? Without specifying, it’s just noise.

• If your customers don’t feel the innovation — actual new features, improvements, surprises — then claiming “innovation” feels like bragging. Worse: it feels hollow and false.

Supporting Evidence:

• Research shows that what matters is how the customer perceives your innovativeness, not that you say you’re innovative. Firms with high customer-perceived innovativeness outperform those who merely tout innovation. The American Innovation Index+1

• “Unlocking firm value through customer perceptions of innovativeness” (2024) shows that customer perception of how innovative a company is has a measurable positive effect on financial performance. The American Innovation Index

• The study “Innovation and Value: Customer Perception, Application, and Concept” examines how different generations interpret “innovation,” showing that without context it’s ambiguous and unreliable as a brand distinguisher. ResearchGate

Stronger alternatives:

• “We reimagine how things are done — not just what’s fashionable.”

• “Unexpected simplicity, created constantly.”

• “If standing still feels safe, we’re already behind.”

Reprogramming Bad Executive Habits (Yes, I Make People Actually Think)

Here’s how this played out in real life:

I recently hosted a brand-workshop. One of my go-to exercises: flash-cards. Over 100 adjective cards. Executives sift through them to find the words that really feel like the brand. After an hour of passionate debate, their top three were:

Innovative, Well-Made, and Kind.

Strong sounding, right? I asked them to discard them all and start over. The room went quiet. Why couldn’t they use them?

Because those were words that any company might pick. They are actually in the deck as triggers because they are a few of the dozen corporate “copy & paste” words that trend in board rooms and executive planning meetings. “Innovative” — we’ve already discussed. “Well-Made” = basically “quality” by another name. “Kind” = “good culture,” “nice people,” etc. Unless they could show me a competitor positioning themselves as “shoddy, bland, or mean,” those words were not differentiating. They were corporate wallpaper.

After tossing out the safe defaults, the real work started: digging into what felt risky, uncomfortable, distinct–-and most importantly intimately sincere. The values that emerged weren’t just nicer poster slogans — they were portraits of the brand’s real promise, potential conflicts, and the kind of company people would feel proud (and scared) to join.

Punch It Up: What Values Should Do (and Dare You to Do)

When your values are done right, they will:

• Make people feel something.

• Force you to say no more than yes.

• Shift culture when no one’s watching.

• Survive bad quarters, crises, and boardroom pressure.

When they’re done wrong, they’re just “nice words” in slide decks. Warm fuzzies with zero spine.

The Call to Action You Knew Was Coming (Yes, I Want You to Reach Out)

If you see this and think, Yup — our values are decent but flat, safe but generic, poster-worthy but not powerfully lived, then good. Recognizing the problem is the first step.

Let’s work together. I have frameworks, tests, exercises, and real practice (yes, flash-cards and all) that push past the bland defaults. I help brands find values that are distinct, defensible, and felt. Values that aren’t just what you hope people say — what they do say (and do).

If you’re ready to make your values memorable instead of groanable, I want to hear from you.