Have you seen the website Honest Slogans? Its clever creators juxtapose well-known brand logos against taglines that would make their respective brand managers cringe. My favorites include:

• Best Buy: Try it out before buying it on Amazon
• Gillette: We’re just going to keep adding more blades
• WebMD: Convince yourself that you have a terminal illness

Of course, these made-up slogans are funny because—on some level—they’re true. (Who hasn’t looked up their symptoms online and been drawn into a morass of horrible diagnoses?)

But the truth of our own brands is hard to face. So let me ask you: What does your brand stand for? I’m not asking what you think it stands for, what your marketing team wants it to stand for, or what you paid a branding agency to tell you it should stand for. And I’m not asking about the five or six bullet points printed on those cards your employees carry around with their security badges, or the carefully crafted prose on your “About Us” page.

What do your customers think about your brand? What do they feel when they use your products and services? What positive and negative words do they associate with the various stages of their customer journey? What is your honest slogan?

To deliver a customer experience that is truly differentiated—one that can’t be mistaken for that of another company—you’ll need honest answers to these questions. The truth lies with your customers.