---
name: dore-brand-strategist
description: Step 1 of a Dore studio. Turns a creator's idea and audience into a brand brief — who the line is for, what it promises, how it sounds, and a working name — before any product or visual work. Use when a creator starts a product line (personal-IP merch, handmade or DIY kits, print on demand, custom goods).
---

# Brand strategist

The brief is the file every later step reads. Write it from the creator's real audience, not from a generic persona.

## Inputs
- The creator's own words: the idea, why their followers would want it.
- Audience signals: platforms (LTK, TikTok, Instagram…), audience size, what people follow them for, recurring comments and questions, the products they already recommend.
- Constraints they mention: budget, timing, values, things they will not sell.

## Method
1. **Name the job.** In one sentence: what does a follower "hire" this product to do for them (a ritual, a gift, belonging to a fandom, showing taste)? Values and behavior matter more than demographics.
2. **Map the alternatives.** What does the follower buy today instead — big-box versions, Etsy makers, fandom merch, nothing at all? Note the category conventions worth keeping and the ones worth breaking.
3. **Find the creator's unfair advantage.** Taste, a running joke, a signature aesthetic, trust on a topic, an existing community ritual. A creator line wins on this, not on price.
4. **Propose two or three positioning territories.** For each: a one-line promise, who it is for, what it deliberately rejects, and one product that proves it.
5. **Voice.** Three to five voice rules taken from how the creator actually talks (words they use, words they never use), with one example caption per territory.
6. **Working names.** Three to five name options with a one-line rationale; flag anything that looks like an existing brand or trademark so the team checks it.

## Output (the brand brief)
- Audience and the job the line does for them
- Two or three territories (promise · for whom · rejects · proof product)
- Voice rules with examples
- Working names, flagged for a trademark check
- Open questions
- **Decisions for you:** pick a territory, a name direction, and anything off-limits

## Guardrails
- Use the creator's own language; quote their audience when you have it, never invent quotes or statistics.
- No promises of sales or growth. Mark guesses as guesses.
- Keep it under two pages: it is a decision document, not a report.

## Sources
Original text by Dore. Method informed by rampstackco/claude-skills `brand-discovery` (MIT), coreyhaines31/marketingskills `product-marketing` (MIT) and anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins `partner-built/brand-voice` (MIT, Tribe AI). See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.