/brainstorm — Marketing Brainstorm

Structured exploration when marketing direction is unclear. You produce a brief that tells /cmo where to route next.

For brand memory protocol, see /cmo rules/brand-memory.md.

On Activation

1. Read brand/ files if they exist (voice-profile.md, audience.md, positioning.md, learnings.md). They enhance but never gate.
2. Assess the user's request clarity level.

Phase 0: Assess Clarity

Gate check. If the request is already specific, skip brainstorming:

If skipping: "Your request is specific enough to execute directly. Routing to /<skill> instead of brainstorming."

Phase 1: Understand the Challenge

Ask ONE question at a time. Prefer multiple choice when natural options exist. Skip questions already answered by brand/ context.

Questions to cover (in order, stop when clear):

1. Goal — What are you trying to achieve? (awareness / leads / revenue / retention / launch)
2. Product — What are you marketing? (Brief description if not obvious from project context)
3. Audience — Who buys this? (Skip if brand/audience.md exists and is current — confirm briefly instead: "Your audience profile says X. Still accurate?")
4. Channels — Where does your audience hang out? (search / social / email / communities / paid)
5. Constraints — Budget, timeline, team size, tools available?
6. Competition — Who else does this? What makes you different? (Skip if brand/competitors.md exists — reference it instead)

Stop as soon as you have enough to propose approaches. 3-4 questions is usually enough.

Phase 2: Explore Approaches

Present 2-3 concrete strategic directions. For each:

### Approach [N]: [Name]

**Core angle:** [One sentence positioning]
**Channels:** [Primary → Secondary]
**Audience fit:** [Why this resonates with the target]
**Timeline:** [Quick win vs. long play]
**Pros:** [2-3 bullet points]
**Cons:** [1-2 bullet points]
**Best when:** [Conditions that make this the right choice]

Ask the user to pick one, combine elements, or explore further.

Handling responses:

Phase 3: Capture Marketing Brief

Write a structured brief to marketing/brainstorms/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-brainstorm.md:

---
type: marketing-brainstorm
date: YYYY-MM-DD
topic: [kebab-case topic]
goal: [awareness|leads|revenue|retention|launch]
chosen-approach: [N]
---

# Marketing Brief: [Topic]

## Context
[What we're marketing and why now]

## Chosen Approach
[Selected direction with rationale]

## Target Audience
[Who we're reaching]

## Channels
[Primary and secondary channels]

## Key Messages
[3-5 core messages]

## Constraints
[Budget, timeline, tools]

## Success Metrics
[How we'll measure impact]

## Structured Handoff
next-skill: [skill-name]
confidence: [high|medium|low]
context-summary: "[One line summary for /cmo routing]"

The next-skill field is critical — it tells /cmo where to route after brainstorming.

Phase 4: Route Back to /cmo

After writing the brief:

"The brainstorm is complete. Brief saved to marketing/brainstorms/[filename]. Run /cmo to execute the next step (/[next-skill]), or invoke /<next-skill> directly."

Do not list all 50 skills. Recommend the ONE next skill based on the brief.

Worked Example

User request: 'I just built a verified meal delivery app, what should I do for marketing?'

Approach 1: Community-Led Growth Build presence in health-focused community spaces (neighborhood Slack groups, campus food subreddits, verified-source food Instagram). Create shareable content that spreads through existing trust networks. → next-skill: audience-research

Approach 2: SEO + Content Capture 'verified meal delivery' search traffic with city-specific landing pages. Write comparison content ('Is DoorDash organic?') to redirect competitor traffic. → next-skill: keyword-research

Recommended: Approach 1 — community trust is the moat for verification-driven products. SEO is Phase 2 after you have testimonials to feature.

Output Format

Follow the output formatting rules from /cmo rules/output-format.md. Key requirements:

• Header with "MARKETING BRAINSTORM" and date
• Each approach as a clearly separated section
• FILES SAVED section showing the brief path
• WHAT'S NEXT section with the recommended next-skill

Anti-Patterns

YAGNI Principles

• Resist adding channels you can't actually execute on
• One campaign well-executed beats three half-started
• If the user has no audience data, start with audience-research, not guessing
• Don't brainstorm pricing, launches, or SEO strategy — those have dedicated skills
• The brief is a compass, not a bible. It should fit on one page.