Marketing Strategy & Planning

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---
name: marketing-personas
description: "Develop buyer personas, audience segments, buying roles, emotional motivations, decision profiles and marketing or targeting hypotheses. Use for persona creation, persona reviews, segmentation or the audience stage of a marketing plan. Positioning is optional input, not a required prior workflow."
---

# Buyer Personas

Apply [Shared working rules](references/working-rules.md) before responding. This is the audience skill in Marketing Strategy & Planning.

## 1. Reuse the positioning or start directly

Use any available positioning brief, offer description and customer evidence. If useful context is missing, offer three concise paths: use supplied positioning, start personas with provisional assumptions, or develop positioning with the companion marketing-positioning skill. Do not force a prerequisite or refer to a separate GPT.

Ask only for missing essentials: the business/offer, target market, objective, known audience segments and available customer evidence. Treat CRM summaries, interviews, support themes and user research according to their source and limitations. Do not request unnecessary personal customer data.

## 2. Define segments and buying roles

Segment by needs, buying situations, company context or behavior before inventing fictional profiles. For B2B, distinguish users, champions, decision makers, budget holders and blockers where relevant; one company can contain several buying roles.

For each segment establish:
- Job or role, relevant responsibilities and company context.
- Relevant demographics only when supported and useful to the buying decision.
- Buying trigger, main job to be done, current alternatives and constraints.
- Expected value, buying criteria and barriers.

Use [Jobs-to-be-Done](references/jobs-to-be-done.md) to focus on desired progress. Do not infer personality, needs or purchasing power from age, gender, nationality or job title alone. Mark unsupported attributes as unknown or as hypotheses.

## 3. Explore interests and challenges

Separate general interests from professional topics and practical challenges. Connect each proposed interest to the offer and buying situation. Make clear which points come from the user or research and which are suggested for validation.

Use [Empathy Map](references/empathy-map.md) when richer insight is useful: what the audience sees, hears, thinks/feels, says/does, finds painful, and wants to gain. Do not present imagined statements as interview quotes.

## 4. Analyze emotional motivations

Use an emotional-targeting approach inspired by the supplied Talia Wolf framework; do not imply affiliation, certification or clinical assessment.

For each segment propose:
1. The top three plausible emotional challenges before purchase.
2. Main concerns and purchase barriers.
3. Desired emotional outcomes after purchase.
4. Self-image and social-image considerations, where relevant.
5. Language, imagery and storytelling themes appropriate to the situation.

In guided mode, discuss one segment at a time and invite correction before proceeding. Do not exploit vulnerabilities or invent hidden fears as facts.

## 5. Add a decision and communication profile

When useful, use DISC-inspired tendencies as an optional communication hypothesis, not a validated personality test or a fixed diagnosis:
- D: preference for directness, outcomes and control.
- I: preference for interaction, enthusiasm and shared ideas.
- S: preference for stability, reassurance and dependable relationships.
- C: preference for detail, analysis and evidence.

Do not assign a personality type to an entire demographic or profession. Describe observed or hypothesized decision behavior instead: decision speed, analytical versus intuitive emphasis, coordination needs and risk tolerance. Acknowledge mixed tendencies and situational differences.

Derive trust signals, likely objections, conversion friction, tone, argument structure and useful content formats. Confirm these hypotheses at segment level before incorporating them into the final profiles.

## 6. Translate insights into audience and targeting hypotheses

Suggest Meta Ads audience concepts and, for B2B, LinkedIn Ads concepts when relevant. Separate:
- The strategic segment and why it matters.
- A proposed platform audience concept.
- An exact targeting option verified in current official documentation or a user-provided account view.
- An option whose current account/market availability still needs checking.

Do not imply a conceptual interest is a selectable platform option. Do not fabricate audience sizes, costs, targeting availability or campaign results. If current verification is unavailable, label the recommendations as concepts to check in the account. Never create or modify campaigns as part of this skill.

Connect each segment to message, offer, channel and desired conversion. Respect applicable platform constraints when known and verify current rules if advising on them.

## 7. Finalize the persona profiles

Use neutral fictional names or descriptive segment labels; make clear that these are composite working models. For each persona include:
- Role and buying responsibility.
- Relevant company context and supported demographics.
- Motivation, buying trigger and job to be done.
- General interests, professional interests and challenges.
- Emotional challenges, objections and desired outcomes.
- Self-image/social-image considerations and language/imagery.
- Decision behavior, trust signals and conversion barriers.
- Audience/targeting concepts with verification status.
- Recommended message, proof, content formats and desired action.
- Evidence, unknowns and hypotheses to validate.

Invite focused corrections. Do not make completion depend on collecting irrelevant demographic details.

## 8. Validate and hand off

Provide a small research and test plan: priority assumptions, interview questions or data needed, segment-specific message hypothesis, conversion metric and a decision criterion. Distinguish correlation from causality and avoid splitting tiny audiences into many inconclusive tests.

Offer a Word export retaining the substantive work. Suggest refining positioning or using marketing-pr-planning to reach the relevant audiences when useful. Do not start other workflows without the user's request.

Referenced files: 5 — file references are metadata, not package contents.

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---
name: marketing-positioning
description: "Develop business and brand positioning, competitor differentiation, USP, value propositions, core messages and perceptual maps. Use for positioning strategy, positioning reviews, or the positioning stage of an integrated marketing plan. Route buyer-persona work to marketing-personas and PR or source-assessment work to marketing-pr-planning."
---

# Brand Positioning

Apply [Shared working rules](references/working-rules.md) before responding. This is the positioning skill in Marketing Strategy & Planning.

## Start from the business

If the brief is missing, ask in the conversation language: "What does your business offer, who is it for, and what do you believe makes it different?" Accept a website, uploaded document or short explanation. Do not repeat questions already answered.

Explain the relevant sequence briefly. The full guided workflow has two phases and nine steps. A review or narrow request needs only the relevant steps. Work for B2B or B2C, adapting the questions to the buying situation.

## Phase 1: Customer value

### 1. Analyze the offer

Identify the products or services, target users and buyers, buying context, delivery model, main functional benefit and available proof. Read supplied URLs/files rather than filling gaps from memory. Summarize what is known and invite corrections.

Use [Jobs-to-be-Done](references/jobs-to-be-done.md) to identify the progress the customer seeks. Use [Value Proposition Canvas](references/value-proposition-canvas.md) when the relationship between offer and needs is unclear. Keep reported benefits separate from proven outcomes.

### 2. Explore functional and emotional value

Ask what should improve for customers practically and emotionally. Propose specific, plausible benefits connected to the buying situation: saved effort, reduced uncertainty, greater confidence, professional effectiveness or relevant social outcomes. Label proposed motivations as hypotheses; do not state them as researched psychology.

### 3. Connect the offer to customer needs

Map customer jobs, pains and desired gains to the offer's features, pain relievers, gain creators and evidence. Explain what the offer can support and what remains unproven. Prioritize a small number of meaningful benefits over a generic list of positive adjectives.

Checkpoint: confirm the value logic before differentiating against competitors.

## Phase 2: Differentiation and message

### 4. Investigate the competitive frame

Ask for up to three relevant competitors and their URLs if not already supplied. If the user wants you to find them, research alternatives in the chosen market and explain why they are comparable. Include substitutes or doing nothing when they shape the actual buying decision.

For each competitor, report the observed offer, target audience, claimed benefits, positioning language, visible proof, and source. Compare like-for-like. Identify potential gaps with a qualification: an unclaimed benefit is not necessarily an unmet demand or a defensible advantage.

### 5. Test emotional and values-based differentiation

Compare how the business and competitors communicate trust, identity, values and desired outcomes. Distinguish demonstrable practices from generic brand claims. Explain which differences matter to the target buyer and what proof would support them.

### 6. Formulate the USP

Draft a specific, defensible unique selling proposition based on capability, process, expertise, service model or other substantiated advantage. State the comparison scope. If uniqueness is not established, call it a differentiation hypothesis or a compelling selling proposition; do not manufacture exclusivity.

### 7. Formulate the value proposition

Combine the audience, problem or desired progress, functional and emotional benefits, relevant differentiation and reasons to believe. A UVP is the overall customer value proposition, not a synonym for emotional value alone. Preserve the emotional work from previous steps within that broader promise.

### 8. Create the core message

Offer two short, plain-language alternatives that convey the value and meaningful difference. Avoid unsupported superlatives. Ask which direction fits, incorporate feedback, and explain the selected message's fit with the audience, evidence and competitive frame. Translate naturally into the requested deliverable language.

Checkpoint: confirm the message and any important strategic trade-off.

### 9. Build the positioning map

Propose two decision-relevant dimensions with clear endpoints. Prefer independent dimensions; explain trade-offs and avoid selecting axes simply to make the business appear superior. In guided mode, let the user select or refine the axes.

Plot the business and the researched competitors in a four-quadrant map when suitable chart tools are available, with labels and a supporting evidence table. Otherwise use a clearly labeled comparison table. Treat coordinates derived from website evidence as qualitative estimates, explain the scale and uncertainty, and do not invent market research. If the axes or evidence are insufficient, describe the hypotheses and validation needed before plotting.

## Final positioning brief

Include:
- Audience, market and buying situation.
- Customer jobs, functional benefits and emotional value.
- Competitor observations and differentiation opportunities.
- USP, value proposition, proof and selected core message.
- Positioning map or comparison table with assumptions.
- The strongest counterargument and a 0–10 heuristic feasibility rating.
- A practical validation plan: target segment, hypothesis, interview/message test, outcome metric and decision criterion. Propose baselines or targets only as explicit assumptions.

Offer a Word export of the substantive work. If the user wants to develop buyer personas or plan PR, continue with the respective companion skill and the existing brief. Do not advertise or link to the former separate GPTs.

Referenced files: 5 — file references are metadata, not package contents.

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---
name: marketing-pr-planning
description: "Plan PR, reputation and outreach research; find relevant media, blogs, conferences, comparison portals, communities, certifications and partners; assess source credibility and advertorials. Use for PR planning, multiplier discovery, media lists, guest-contribution ideas or standalone URL/source trust checks. Do not require positioning or persona work for a standalone source review."
---

# PR & Reputation Planning

Apply [Shared working rules](references/working-rules.md) before responding. Read [Source validation](references/source-validation.md) before scoring a source. This is the PR skill in Marketing Strategy & Planning.

## Select the requested mode

- PR or multiplier research: use the business brief and workflow A.
- Source credibility review: use workflow B directly.
- Integrated marketing plan: reuse positioning and personas; do not restart intake.
- Both PR research and source review: assess sources as part of the requested research.

A request to assess one URL needs no company intake or long outreach plan. A request to discover multipliers does not authorize contacting them.

## Workflow A: PR and multiplier planning

### 1. Establish the brief

Use the supplied website, deep link, offer description or positioning/persona brief. Ask for a URL or short business description when neither is available. If a page is inaccessible, accept pasted content and disclose the limit.

Identify the business/offer, topics, industry, differentiating evidence, audience, geography and business goal. Keep conversation language separate from publication language and target country. Ask only for material missing context.

For an actionable plan establish the timeframe, available expertise/assets, staff time, budget/currency and preferred balance of editorial coverage, speaking, partnerships and paid exposure. If the user asks for a complete plan without these details, state reasonable working assumptions instead of inventing confirmed resources. Use a provisional 90-day horizon only when clearly labeled.

### 2. Research suitable multipliers

Search current sources in the selected market and in the relevant publication languages. Verify active status, topic fit and actual opportunities. Organize findings into the requested categories:

A. General and specialist conferences, events and speaking opportunities.
B. Relevant comparison portals, directories, certifications and awards, including verified entry requirements and costs.
C. Trade media, magazines, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, communities and partnership opportunities.
D. Specific topic/trend ideas for guest articles, interviews, talks and collaborations, each tied to a relevant target and a useful contribution.

For a comprehensive brief, aim for up to 20 verified, relevant candidates in each requested category A–C and up to 20 tailored ideas in D. For a shortlist or narrow request, prioritize fewer strong matches. Never pad the list to meet a quota. Explain if fewer qualified candidates can be verified. Avoid duplicate entries across categories unless the opportunities are materially different.

For events, verify the edition, year, location, date and speaker deadline on the organizer's current pages. Distinguish confirmed future dates, announced dates, historical timing and estimates. Never present a past edition as upcoming. Offer international alternatives when local options are scarce and disclose the change of geography.

For fees, distinguish listing, sponsorship, award/certification, submission and ticket costs. Include currency, the applicable period and source date when available. Write "not publicly listed" or "not verified" when appropriate; do not invent free entry or a price.

### 3. Assess evidence quality and fit

Apply the source-validation reference. Keep the 0–50 heuristic source assessment separate from audience fit and outreach priority. Do not invent Domain Authority, traffic, readership, circulation or AI-citation likelihood. Established brand names are clues, not proof of every article's quality.

Assess individual pages or claims where possible. For media/portal rows, include Trust score, Rating, Evidence/limitations and Source. When evidence is insufficient, use "not assessed" instead of an invented midpoint. Label sponsored, affiliate and commercial contexts.

Use official organizer or publisher pages to verify their own dates, submission rules, contact routes and prices. Such evidence can establish those facts without proving independent editorial quality. Do not exclude a relevant paid opportunity merely because it is paid; classify it separately and explain the trade-off. Do not use paid content as independent endorsement.

### 4. Present the research

Start with a brief business/audience/market summary and the most promising opportunities. Use readable, separate tables rather than one excessively wide table.

For events: name, topic/audience fit, location, date/year and status, submission deadline/route, effort or verified cost, source.

For media and portals: name/type, focus, market/language, audience fit, editorial or paid route, Trust score (0–50 or not assessed), Rating, evidence note, source.

For topic ideas: target, audience problem, angle, proposed format, evidence or asset needed, relevance and next action.

Include the research date. Link the actual relevant source pages, not invented URLs or vague search-result pages.

### 5. Convert priorities into an actionable plan

Build a prioritized plan for the agreed timeframe:
- Goal, target segment, key message and credible evidence.
- Target outlet/event/partner and why it fits.
- Angle and format, with a short pitch outline where requested.
- Required asset, responsible role, effort and budget assumption.
- Next action, deadline with year, dependencies and status.
- Success metric and measurement method.

Separate earned, paid, partner and owned channels. Prioritize audience relevance, editorial fit, proof, timing and achievable effort; do not optimize only for backlinks or domain prestige.

For measurement, distinguish activity (pitches, responses), outputs (coverage, accepted talks), audience response (relevant visits, engagement) and business outcomes (qualified inquiries, opportunities, revenue where measurable). Suggest UTM tracking for controllable links, referral/source capture, CRM source notes and a review cadence when suitable. Explain attribution gaps and do not infer causal lift from a before/after increase alone.

Explain the strongest counterargument to the recommended plan and a concise 0–10 heuristic feasibility rating. Identify the first low-effort step and the evidence needed to improve confidence.

### 6. Complete the handoff

Offer a Word export of the substantive findings, sources and plan. Draft an outreach message when asked. Sending, publishing, purchasing placements, registering or submitting applications are separate actions requiring the user's explicit instruction and appropriate tools. No autonomous outreach, purchased-link promises, guaranteed coverage or guaranteed SEO/GEO benefits.

## Workflow B: Source credibility review

1. Accept one or more supplied URLs or domains; three is useful for comparison but not mandatory. Ask for an example URL only when none is given.
2. Open the actual article/page. For a domain-only request, explain which representative pages and ownership/editorial information were inspected; do not generalize beyond that sample.
3. Assess authorship, ownership, publisher/section, date, evidence, methodology, citations, conflicts and explicit sponsorship. Distinguish advertiser-controlled material hosted on a publisher's domain from the publisher's own editorial work.
4. Apply the reference's weighted criteria. Report observations, uncertainty, the score or "not assessed", confidence and suitability for the user's intended claim.
5. Distinguish confirmed advertorial, suspected commercial influence and no evidence of sponsorship. Missing bylines or affiliate links alone are not proof of falsehood.
6. For multiple sufficiently assessed sources, report the median, minimum–maximum and spread (maximum minus minimum) over scored items. State how many were excluded as unassessed. For exactly three, add a short comparison of evidence quality and conflicts.
7. Recommend what can reasonably be cited, what needs corroboration and which original/primary source could resolve gaps. Do not rank a vendor page as useless for its own product specification or an organizer page for its own event date.
8. Keep the answer scoped to the user's source question; do not launch unrelated marketing intake.

Referenced files: 4 — file references are metadata, not package contents.