/competitive-brief

name: competitive-brief
description: "Research competitors and generate a positioning and messaging comparison with content gaps, opportunities, and threats. Use when building sales battlecards, when finding positioning gaps and messaging angles competitors haven't claimed, or when a competitor makes a move and you need to assess the impact."
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep
argument-hint: <competitor or market segment>

Competitive Brief

> If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see [CONNECTORS.md](../CONNECTORS-marketing.md).

Research competitors and generate a structured competitive analysis comparing positioning, messaging, content strategy, and market presence.

Trigger

User runs `/competitive-brief` or asks for a competitive analysis, competitor research, or market comparison.

Inputs

Gather the following from the user:

1. **Competitor name(s)** — one or more competitors to analyze (required)

2. **Your company/product context** (optional but recommended):

• What you sell and to whom
• Your positioning or value proposition
• Key differentiators you want to highlight

3. **Focus areas** (optional — if not specified, cover all):

• Messaging and positioning
• Product and feature comparison
• Content and thought leadership strategy
• Recent announcements and news
• Pricing and packaging (if publicly available)
• Market presence and audience

Research Process

For each competitor, research using web search:

1. **Company website** — homepage messaging, product pages, about page, pricing page 2. **Recent news** — press releases, funding announcements, product launches, partnerships (last 6 months) 3. **Content strategy** — blog topics, resource types, social media presence, webinars, podcasts 4. **Review sites and comparisons** — third-party comparisons, analyst mentions, customer review themes 5. **Job postings** — hiring signals that indicate strategic direction (optional)

Research Sources

Gather intelligence from these categories of sources:

Primary Sources (Direct from Competitor)

• **Website**: homepage, product pages, pricing, about page, careers
• **Blog and resource center**: content themes, publishing frequency, depth
• **Social media profiles**: messaging, engagement, content strategy
• **Product demos and free trials**: UX, features, onboarding experience
• **Webinars and events**: topics, speakers, audience engagement
• **Press releases and newsroom**: announcements, partnerships, milestones
• **Job postings**: hiring signals that reveal strategic priorities (e.g., hiring for a new product line or market)

Secondary Sources (Third-Party)

• **Review sites**: G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, Product Hunt — customer sentiment themes
• **Analyst reports**: Gartner, Forrester, IDC — market positioning and category placement
• **News coverage**: TechCrunch, industry publications — funding, partnerships, narrative
• **Social listening**: mentions, sentiment, share of voice across social platforms
• **SEO tools**: keyword rankings, organic traffic estimates, content gaps
• **Financial filings**: revenue, growth rate, investment areas (for public companies)
• **Community forums**: community forums (e.g. Reddit, Discourse), industry chat groups (e.g. Slack communities) — user sentiment

Research Cadence

• **Deep competitive analysis**: quarterly (full research across all sources)
• **Competitive monitoring**: monthly (scan for new announcements, content, messaging changes)
• **Real-time alerts**: ongoing (set up alerts for competitor brand mentions, press, job postings)

Competitive Brief Structure

1. Executive Summary

• 2-3 sentence overview of the competitive landscape
• Key takeaway: your biggest opportunity and biggest threat

2. Competitor Profiles

For each competitor:

Company Overview

• What they do (one-sentence positioning)
• Target audience
• Company size/stage indicators (funding, employee count if available)
• Key recent developments

Messaging Analysis

• Primary tagline or headline
• Core value proposition
• Key messaging themes (3-5)
• Tone and voice characterization
• How they describe the problem they solve

Product/Solution Positioning

• How they categorize their product
• Key features they emphasize
• Claimed differentiators
• Pricing approach (if publicly available)

Content Strategy

• Blog frequency and topics
• Content types produced (ebooks, webinars, case studies, tools)
• Social media presence and engagement approach
• Thought leadership themes
• SEO strategy observations (what terms they appear to target)

Strengths

• What they do well
• Where their messaging resonates
• Competitive advantages

Weaknesses

• Gaps in their messaging or positioning
• Areas where they are vulnerable
• Customer complaints or criticism themes (from reviews)

3. Messaging Comparison Matrix

| Dimension | Your Company | Competitor A | Competitor B | |-----------|-------------|--------------|--------------| | Primary tagline | ... | ... | ... | | Target buyer | ... | ... | ... | | Key differentiator | ... | ... | ... | | Tone/voice | ... | ... | ... | | Core value prop | ... | ... | ... |

(Include user's company only if they provided their positioning context)

4. Content Gap Analysis

• Topics your competitors cover that you do not (or vice versa)
• Content formats they use that you could adopt
• Keywords or themes they own vs. opportunities they have missed

5. Opportunities

• Positioning gaps you can exploit
• Messaging angles your competitors have not claimed
• Audience segments they are underserving
• Content or channel opportunities

6. Threats

• Areas where competitors are strong and you are vulnerable
• Trends that favor their positioning
• Recent moves that could shift the market

7. Recommended Actions

• 3-5 specific, actionable recommendations based on the analysis
• Quick wins (things you can act on this week)