audience-research

Note: Examples below use fictional brands (Acme, Lumi, Helm). Replace with your own brand context.

/audience-research -- Know Who You're Talking To

Every marketing skill gets better when you know your audience. Generic copy happens when you write for "everyone." Specific copy that converts happens when you write for a real person with real problems.

This skill builds that audience profile. It's the foundation - 8 of 11 content skills read audience.md to shape their output. Running this first makes everything downstream sharper.

No SaaS tools needed. Systematic research plus web search.

On Activation

1. Check if brand/ directory exists in the project root.
2. If it does, read available files: voice-profile.md, positioning.md, audience.md, competitors.md, creative-kit.md, stack.md, learnings.md.
3. Apply any loaded brand context to enhance output quality - skip questions the user has already answered.
4. If brand/ does not exist, proceed without it - this skill works standalone.

Iteration Detection

Before starting, check whether ./brand/audience.md already exists.

If audience.md EXISTS --> Update Mode

Do not start from scratch. Instead:

1. Read the existing audience profile.

2. Present a summary of current personas:

   EXISTING AUDIENCE PROFILE
   Last updated {date} by /audience-research
   
   Personas:
   ├── {Persona 1 name}    {one-liner}
   ├── {Persona 2 name}    {one-liner}
   └── Primary: {primary persona name}
   
   Watering holes: {N} mapped
   
   ──────────────────────────────────────────────
   
   What would you like to do?
   
   1. Refine existing personas with fresh research
   2. Add a new persona segment
   3. Deep-dive into watering holes
   4. Full rebuild from scratch
   

3. Process the user's choice:

   • Option 1 --> Re-run research for existing personas, update with new data
   • Option 2 --> Identify the new segment, build persona, merge into existing file
   • Option 3 --> Focus on community mining for existing personas
   • Option 4 --> Full process from scratch