shared/references/marketing-brief.md

# Marketing Brief Normalization

Convert messy input into a small commercial decision contract before visual styling

## Required decisions

Record

- business objective
- audience
- awareness state
- trigger or occasion
- one primary message
- supporting information
- desired action
- main obstacle or objection
- proof available
- offer if any
- platform and placement
- viewing distance and likely exposure time
- cultural/market context
- non-negotiable assets and copy

## Primary message rule

Write one sentence the visual must communicate before the audience reads secondary copy

If two messages are equally important, choose the one closest to the business objective and move the other to supporting information

Do not let a client-supplied list of selling points become five competing headlines

## Evidence rule

Separate

- claim
- visual proof
- textual proof

A visual should not imply evidence that does not exist

Do not fabricate ratings, charts, UI screens, awards, testimonials, before/after results, or usage statistics for visual interest

## Objective implications

### Awareness
Prioritize memorability, category recognition, brand coding, and a visual idea that can be recalled without reading all copy

### Consideration
Prioritize product meaning, differentiator, proof, and enough detail to reward a second look

### Conversion
Prioritize offer clarity, product/proof visibility, friction reduction, and CTA support without turning the visual into a price sheet

### Launch
Prioritize newness, product recognition, and an idea that can extend across multiple assets

### Retargeting
Assume higher familiarity and spend less visual space re-explaining the category

### Event attendance
Prioritize event identity, date/location readability, reason-to-attend, and channel-specific hierarchy

## Audience intelligence

Infer only from evidence in the brief, brand, category, platform, and market

Avoid generic personas

Useful notes include

- what the audience already knows
- what visual codes they recognize
- what would feel clichéd, childish, cheap, too corporate, or unbelievable
- expected design literacy
- likely objection
- device, distance, and scroll context

## Decision tension

Name the main tradeoff the visual must solve

Examples

- premium perception without reducing product clarity
- high information density without losing first-read hierarchy
- cultural specificity without cliché
- strong offer without discount-store visual language
- realism with a surreal scale concept

Resolving the tension is part of art direction

## Performance creative note

Performance does not mean visually crude or overloaded

Make the first-frame proposition obvious, keep product or proof legible, and preserve a clear action path

Use hierarchy and grouping before adding labels, containers, or badges