# Brand Discovery

Run upstream brand discovery covering audience research, competitive landscape...

- Repository: https://github.com/rampstackco/claude-skills (1014 stars)
- Category: Marketing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-27
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill brand-discovery -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill brand-discovery -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill brand-discovery -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add rampstackco/claude-skills --skill brand-discovery -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add rampstackco/claude-skills`

## Description

Run upstream brand discovery covering audience research, competitive landscape, category dynamics, problem space, and positioning territory exploration. Use this skill at the very start of a brand or website project when the user needs to understand who they're for, who they compete with, what the audience actually needs, and where the brand could plausibly stand. Triggers on brand discovery, audience research, market research, competitive scan, category research, customer research, who is this for, who are we, positioning research, intake, kickoff. Also triggers when a creative brief is requested but the upstream inputs (audience, competitors, problem space) are not yet clear.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Brand Discovery

Upstream of every brief, identity, and content plan. Discovery answers four questions: who the brand is for, what they need, who else is competing for that need, and where the brand could plausibly stand that competitors do not.

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## When to use

- The very first phase of a new brand or website project
- Understanding an audience before any creative work begins
- Mapping competitors and category dynamics
- Surfacing the problem space the brand will operate in
- Generating positioning territories before brief or ideation
- When a creative brief was requested but the inputs are missing

## When NOT to use

- The audience and category are already well-understood (jump to `creative-brief` or `brand-ideation`)
- Validating a specific design or feature with users (use `usability-testing`)
- Mapping the customer journey of an existing audience (use `journey-mapping`)
- Generating brand names or visual directions (use `brand-ideation`)

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## Required inputs

- The product, service, or organization being branded
- Whatever is already known about the audience and category (often very little)
- Access to existing materials (sales calls, support tickets, reviews, analytics)
- Any constraints (parent brand, regulatory, geographic)
- A timeline (a 1-week discovery looks different than a 6-week one)

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## The framework: 4 dimensions

Discovery covers four dimensions. Each has its own sources, methods, and outputs.

### 1. Audience

Who specifically does this serve?

**Layers to surface:**

- **Demographic:** Age range, geography, language, life stage, income (only if relevant; do not over-collect demographics)
- **Psychographic:** Values, motivations, beliefs, fears
- **Behavioral:** What they currently do to address the problem, what tools they use, where they spend time online and offline
- **Jobs-to-be-done:** The functional, emotional, and social jobs they hire a brand to perform

**Sources:**

The rest: https://github.com/rampstackco/claude-skills/blob/HEAD/dist/codex/.agents/skills/brand-discovery/SKILL.md