brand-strategy

Grounding skill. Consults the brand corpus to surface archetype, positioning, voice/tone, and messaging constraints. Output is a constraint set the human confirms — never final brand copy — then handed to brand-identity and brand-to-tokens.

When to use

• Deciding brand archetype, opposable positioning, voice/tone, or messaging framework before any identity work begins.
• Before invoking brand-identity — the confirmed constraint set is its required input.
• When a brief lacks a named audience, an opposable difference, or supporting proof.
• When a brand refresh or extension needs grounding before token changes.

Procedure

1. Pressure-test the brief. Is the audience named (not "everyone")? Is the difference opposable (could a competitor claim the opposite)? Is there at least one proof point? If any are missing, challenge — do not proceed on a vague brief.

2. Ground via the corpus. Run the corpus engine for each required domain. Start with archetype, then voice, then messaging:

node <skills-root>/corpus-grounding/scripts/ground.mjs search \
  --manifest <skills-root>/brand/data/manifest.json \
  "<sector + audience + intent>" --domain archetype --json

Repeat with --domain voice and --domain messaging. Each call returns ranked rows with confidence and evidence_gap.

3. Read confidence and evidence gaps. Before trusting any row, read confidence and every evidence_gap entry verbatim. Low-confidence rows must be surfaced as gaps — never silently promoted.

4. Draft the constraint set. Produce:

   • An opposable positioning statement naming the audience AND a difference a competitor could legitimately claim the opposite of.
   • A voice direction — the register the archetype implies, as input only. The voice itself is three "X, not Y" attributes owned by voice-and-tone-design and recorded in the brand-voice slot (agents/context-spine/brand-voice.md); author no competing trait list here, and never write the slot from this skill. <!-- ref-ignore -->
   • A chosen messaging framework (problem-solution, jobs-to-be-done, category creation, etc.) with a rationale sentence.

5. Surface gaps and low-confidence calls. Name every evidence gap and every row below the confidence threshold. Flag where the corpus was thin.

6. Human confirms. Present the full constraint set. Wait for confirmation before handing off. Do not proceed autonomously.

7. Hand off. Pass the confirmed constraint set to brand-identity (identity execution) and brand-to-tokens (DTCG token emission).

Output format

1. Named archetype cited to the corpus row (domain, row id, confidence).
2. One-line opposable positioning statement (audience + difference).
3. Voice direction handed to voice-and-tone-design, which owns the three attributes and the brand-voice slot, plus chosen messaging framework with rationale.
4. Confidence label (High / Medium / Low) and every evidence_gap from the corpus verbatim.

Do NOT

• Author final taglines, brand names, or headlines as decided output — those are identity artifacts.
• Invent values or traits absent from the corpus or the consumer's existing brand.
• Accept a brief with no named audience, no opposable difference, and no proof point.
• Override the consumer's existing brand tokens or voice — they are the source of truth; this skill grounds net-new or refresh decisions only.

Gotcha

• The corpus grounds pre-action selection, not validation. Output checking belongs to brand-source-of-truth § Iron Law 2, not here.
• "Premium + approachable + innovative" is three briefs, not one. Force the trade-off before drafting a positioning statement.
• An empty corpus result is legitimate signal — surface the gap and ask whether to proceed with a thin foundation or pause for more evidence.

See also

• brand — the corpus this skill grounds against.
• brand-identity — consumes the confirmed strategy.
• brand-to-tokens — emits the DTCG token source of truth.
• corpus-grounding — the shared engine.
• voice-and-tone-design (pack gtm-marketing, so named not linked) — owns the voice and writes the brand-voice slot; this skill hands it a direction, never a finished profile.