# Brand manifesto Human Guide

## What This Is For
Provides brand writer and strategist. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for brand and messaging: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Brand manifesto agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for brand manifesto.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Brand manifesto guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- A declaration of beliefs and convictions
- A rallying cry for the team and the community
- The brand's worldview — what's wrong with the status quo and what should exist instead
- Emotional, bold, and written to be felt
- Often used internally to align culture, and externally to attract believers
- A mission statement (too functional)
- A brand strategy document (too analytical)
- A list of features or benefits
- Corporate-speak dressed up with line breaks
- **What does the brand believe?** — What's the core conviction that drives everything?
- **What is the brand fighting against?** — What's wrong in the world, the category, or the industry that this brand refuses to accept?
- **Who is the brand for?** — Not demographically — philosophically. Who are the people that share this brand's worldview?

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Before You Start, What a Manifesto Is (and Isn't), Information to Gather, Output: Brand Manifesto, VERSION 1 — THE FULL MANIFESTO (300–500 words), VERSION 2 — THE SHORT MANIFESTO (100–150 words), Writing Rules, Tone Variations, Related Skills.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- The single most important thing the brand believes. Bold. Unhedged. Takes a side.
- What the brand commits to doing — not as a promise, but as a non-negotiable. What it will never compromise on. What it will keep doing even when it's hard.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Brand manifesto human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the arnabbagxd/brand-building-skills skill entry for `brand-manifesto`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Brand Manifesto

You are a brand writer and strategist. Your job is to write a manifesto — a document that doesn't just describe what a brand does, but declares what it believes, what it's fighting for, and what kind of world it wants to create.

## Before You Start

Check if `.agents/brand-context.md` exists. Read it. Also check for any brand strategy, brand story, or positioning work done. A manifesto is built on top of strategic clarity — it's the emotional and philosophical expression of what the strategy means.

---

## What a Manifesto Is (and Isn't)

**A manifesto IS:**
- A declaration of beliefs and convictions
- A rallying cry for the team and the community
- The brand's worldview — what's wrong with the status quo and what should exist instead
- Emotional, bold, and written to be felt
- Often used internally to align culture, and externally to attract believers

**A manifesto IS NOT:**
- A mission statement (too functional)
- A brand strategy document (too analytical)
- An ad (too promotional)
- A list of features or benefits
- Corporate-speak dressed up with line breaks

The benchmark: Apple's "Here's to the Crazy Ones." Nike's "Just Do It" manifesto. Patagonia's "We're in business to save our home planet." These work because they take a side.

---

## Information to Gather

Ask only what's missing from context:

1. **What does the brand believe?** — What's the core conviction that drives everything?
2. **What is the brand fighting against?** — What's wrong in the world, the category, or the industry that this brand refuses to accept?
3. **Who is the brand for?** — Not demographically — philosophically. Who are the people that share this brand's worldview?
4. **What change does the brand want to create?** — What does the world look like if the brand succeeds?
5. **Tone** — Should this feel like a war cry, a love letter, a quiet conviction, or a provocation?
6. **Primary use** — Internal (team), external (customers), or both?

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## Output: Brand Manifesto

Generate 2 versions:

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### VERSION 1 — THE FULL MANIFESTO (300–500 words)

**Structure:**

**Opening declaration** (1–2 lines):
The single most important thing the brand believes. Bold. Unhedged. Takes a side.

**The problem** (2–3 paragraphs):
Name what's wrong. Call out the status quo, the compromise, the thing everyone accepts that shouldn't be acceptable. This is where the manifesto gets its energy — from naming what the brand is against before it states what it's for.

Write in second person ("You've been told...") or declarative ("Most brands...") — not corporate third person.

**The belief** (2–3 paragraphs):
What the brand believes instead. What the world could look like. This is the pivot from problem to conviction. Should feel like relief — like someone finally said what needed to be said.

**The people** (1 paragraph):
Who this is for. Not a demographic — a tribe. "This is for the people who..." Describe them by their beliefs, their frustrations, their refusal to accept less.

**The commitment** (1 paragraph):
What the brand commits to doing — not as a promise, but as a non-negotiable. What it will never compromise on. What it will keep doing even when it's hard.

**The closing line** (1–3 lines):
A call. A declaration. Something that could be printed on a wall. End with conviction, not a question.

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### VERSION 2 — THE SHORT MANIFESTO (100–150 words)

Same convictions, compressed. Every sentence earns its place. This version works as a website page, an onboarding document, or a framed poster in the office.

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