Every brand's first principle should be: we don't bullsh*t you
· 1 min read · Rohan Kumar
Trust isn't built by yapping. It's built every time a customer realizes your claims match reality.
Just don't bullshit people.
- If your product isn't worth the price, don't invent a story around it.
- If your ingredient does nothing meaningful, don't hide behind complicated terminology.
- If your AI-generated logo, website, and copy are good enough for your business, don't tell customers you're obsessed with quality.
If you need to manipulate, exaggerate, or confuse people just to make a sale, you don't have a branding problem.
You can't build trust by yapping all the time. It's built every time a customer realizes your claims actually match reality.
That's the standard more brands should be chasing.
What the discussion added
I posted this on r/branding, and a few replies took the idea further.
A brand is a promise you keep
One reply summed it up well: that's the whole point of a brand. Make a promise, then keep it.
And that's exactly why most brands don't make this promise. They know they can't keep it.
Promises that only sound good in the boardroom
Another designer shared something I think many of us have seen. Too many companies make promises they don't intend to keep, simply because the CEO likes how the words sound. It happens even when the designer asks, while presenting, whether leadership will actually stand behind it.
That's the gap. A brand promise is easy to approve. Living up to it is the hard part.
Honesty isn't the only way to win
A fair counterpoint: some brands thrive without this principle. Challenger brands copy everything from the industry leader, charge slightly less, and people are happy to pay.
And depending on where you're based, there are already rules and regulations against misleading claims. So in some places, not bullshitting people isn't just a nice principle. It's the law.
The standard
Don't bullshit people. Make promises you can keep, then keep them.
