Regardless of product, audience, market conditions or valuation, here are 10 Undeniable Branding Truths:

1. Awesomeness is the ultimate benchmark. “Are we awesome?” covers people, systems, marketing, product dev … everything.
2. Your internal culture is always manifested in your brand – especially in customer experience and product quality.
3. If your brand appeals to both Hipsters and Republicans, you will be just fine.
4. Institutional thinking produces sameness in your branding and marketing. Sameness is also what you do when you have no differentiators.
5. If you have no differentiators, you are not a brand – you are an entity.
6. “Best kept secret” just means you suck at marketing.
7. If you want mass market appeal, you will eventually have to sell to dumb people.
8. A true message isn’t a slogan. It’s an invitation.
9. The relationship between a brand and an audience is just like a personal relationship. It needs intimacy, validation and appreciation.
10. If you can’t be awesome, can’t build something awesome, can’t treat other people awesomely, no amount of marketing can fix your brand.

Add your truths in the comments.