/research-market

name: research-market
description: >-
  Market research and brand watch: which market the brand is in, how big the reachable part is, what's
  changing, how buyers buy and what they pay, what people are saying now, and what it means for
  positioning. Use when the marketer asks for market research, "how big is my market", "what's
  changing in my category", "what do others charge", "what are people saying about us", "is there
  demand for <idea>", or "watch my brand / tell me if something blows up" (alerts only, risk first).
  Researches first, asks only decisions at the end, and delivers a readable report saved to the brand.
  Not for who the buyers are and their own words — use research-audience; not for a deep look at
  rivals — use research-competitors.
version: 0.4.1

research-market

Market research decides **which market the brand is in, how big the reachable part is, and what's changing in it** — then what that means for the brand. It reads the buyer groups research-audience owns and sizes them; it doesn't build its own. Rivals get one short section that points to competitor research. It also runs a light **brand watch**: risk first, alerts only. The worker briefs are its step skills (`research-market-<step>`) and the craft is in `references/`, next to this file.

**The rule that matters most: free pass first, ask nothing, report once** (`../marketing-guide/research-pattern.md` (in the `marketing-guide` skill) — read it before the first search). Do every dimension before the first message to the marketer; never stop to ask "go deeper?"; never ask for free work. A broad ask gets everything; an ask that names an area — **the market** · **what people are saying** — gets that area covered completely, with news first.

Before you start

1. **Setup first:** do the `marketing-guide` skill (`../marketing-guide/SKILL.md`) §1–2 (connect, brand, brain read) before anything else; the job line is "I research your market and save what I find through it." Here: call `get_started` with `wants: "more"`; a named brand not in the account → create it from its website (`gooseworks:brand_setup`) without asking and wait for its research (`gooseworks:job_get`); don't show a menu unrelated to research. Fallback brand read: `gooseworks:brand_read` (`summary`, `kit`, `products`, `competitors`, `learnings`, `sources`, `organic`, `accounts`) and `gooseworks:knowledge_search`. Either path: `gooseworks:competitor_read`; workspace: `research/market/` (the last report and watch log), `research/audience/` (`buyer-groups.md` — the groups with their counts — and the latest audience report), `research/competitors/` (the latest report), `plans/`, `research/credits-log/`. Where the brain and the website differ on a brand fact, say so and use neither as a claim. Claims: only the read step of the `claims-gate` skill (`../claims-gate/SKILL.md`) now. 2. **Run memory:** job `market research`, `market pulse` or `brand watch`; what this job hands the atom is in `references/run-memory.md`. Its "since last time" opens the chat and the report's story. 3. **An idea, not a market?** When the ask names a product, offer or concept that doesn't exist yet ("is there demand for …?"), run the same steps pointed at it, with `references/idea-validation.md`. 4. Never change the host's settings, and never seed a search with names or claims from memory.

Steps — the market report

1. **Frame.** Company type, products, markets, the area asked, first run or "what changed since <date>". 2. **News first.** Web-search the last 90 days for the brand and the category: launches, funding, shutdowns, acquisitions, regulation, platform changes, price moves. 3. **Brief the workers.** Read each brief and paste its full text into the worker's instructions with the brand facts, `brand_id`, research-audience's buyer groups and the window: the `research-market-market-pass` skill (`../research-market-market-pass/SKILL.md`) (which market, size top-down and bottom-up, change, buying, pricing, attention, demand, baselines) and the `research-market-listening` skill (`../research-market-listening/SKILL.md`) (what people are saying). Exactly these two workers (or the main run does both, one after the other, on a host without subagents) — no workflow on top, and workers don't load skills or start their own. A cheaper model is fine for this reading work. Keep each return as it arrives. An item marked "tell the marketer now" goes to chat at once (`references/listening-craft.md` § Risk). Edge cases — no browser, a stalled or stopped worker, facts from earlier research, a bad rival on the list, a report already saved today, a late read — follow the `research-market-edge-cases` skill (`../research-market-edge-cases/SKILL.md`). 4. **Open what needs the browser yourself** — the pages workers list, one site at a time, after one line to the marketer. 5. **Write the story** in the shape of `references/report-format.md`. Size the reachable part from research-audience's groups (no buyer groups yet: the groups this run can see, marked provisional, and running audience research is a decision), with the realistic-share rule in the `research-market-market-pass` skill (`../research-market-market-pass/SKILL.md`) §2. **When the recommended market contradicts the brand's stated positioning,** say so plainly, list what this run didn't test (buyer interviews, win/loss, a live test), and frame it as the founders' decision; never give it a deadline under a week unless something outside forces it (a launch, an event, a renewal). Quote 3–5 buyers **word for word with links** to the post itself (never a community's home page) — from research-audience's quote bank or this run's listening, never composites or paraphrase; a quote taken from an earlier report is re-opened, or labelled "from <report>, not re-checked". Check every number, date and quote against what a worker returned. 6. **Check, then deliver.** Run the check in `references/report-format.md`, then deliver through t