marketing-strategy

Strategy Skills

Build marketing strategy, positioning, personas, and action plans with mandatory gates.

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The Iron Laws

1. NO POSITIONING WITHOUT DISCOVERY FIRST
2. NO PERSONA WITHOUT EVIDENCE SOURCE
3. NO NEW CHANNELS WITHOUT CURRENT CHANNEL AUDIT

Violating the letter of these rules is violating the spirit.

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Positioning

When to Use

• "help me position [brand]"
• "create positioning statement"
• "what makes us different"
• "build messaging framework"

Discovery Gate (MANDATORY)

BEFORE writing positioning, ask these ONE AT A TIME:

Phase 1: Understand Brand

1. "What does [brand] sell? (specific product/service)"
2. "Who buys it? (specific role/persona)"
3. "What problem does it solve for them?"
4. "What happens if they don't solve this problem?"

Phase 2: Understand Market 5. "Who are your main competitors? (name 2-3)" 6. "Why do customers choose you over them?" 7. "What can you claim that competitors cannot?"

Phase 3: Validate 8. "Is this differentiator: Believable? Provable? Sustainable?"

IF any answer is "I don't know": That's a gap to fill, not to assume.

Quality Gates

Element	Good	Bad (Reject)
Audience	"VP Engineering at Series B SaaS, 50-200 employees"	"Businesses" / "Everyone"
Need	"Ship features faster without breaking production"	"Be more efficient"
Benefit	"Reduces deployment time by 60%"	"Saves time"
Differentiator	"Only platform with automatic rollback on error spike"	"Better than competitors"

Positioning Statement Format

📍 POSITIONING STATEMENT

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For **[specific target audience]**
who **[specific need/problem]**,

**[Product name]** is a **[category]**
that **[key benefit - specific, measurable]**.

Unlike **[named competitor or alternative]**,
we **[specific, provable differentiator]**.

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**Tagline:** "[Short, memorable version]"

**Discovery Completed:**
- Target audience: [Source/validation]
- Differentiator: [Evidence/proof point]
- Competitor comparison: [Based on what]