Answer
How Brew compares with the ways a store gets its marketing done today, by job and never by brand name in public; we have no sourced list of named competitors yet, so this page holds the category grid and one battlecard per category, and the named list waits on research Param approves.
Today
What we know, and what we do not
- The research folder holds notes on Octalysis and Duolingo only; there is no competitor research in it brand-directions/_research/sources.md:1-43
- The product audit is an audit of our own build, not of rivals brand-directions/_research/product-audit.md:1-385
- The old book says the same: no sourced competitor list, so it compares categories brand-directions/book/content/i.js i-4 alternatives
- No named tool, price or feature of another company is recorded anywhere in our sources. Nothing below names one.
The categories founders use instead
| Alternative | What they get | Where it falls short for the weekly job | How we sit with it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doing it yourself | Full control, your own voice | Tired hours, a blank page every week, no time to read reviews, rivals or AI answers | We do the reading and the first draft | brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-5 alternatives |
| A marketing agency | Strategy and making | Needs a brief, its own calendar, a monthly cost | We hand them a brief written for an agency | brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-5 alternatives brew/team-brief.js:20 |
| A freelancer | Making on demand | Waits to be told what to make | The brief page gives what, why, words, specs and files | brand-directions/book/content/i.js i-4 alternatives |
| A marketing hire | Brand knowledge | The same reading and planning load | Plays with proof give them a start they can defend | brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-5 alternatives |
| A general AI chat | Fast words | Knows the store only if you paste it in; no proof on what it says | We start from a read of the store and show the source of every number | brand-directions/book/content/i.js i-4 alternatives brew/SCOPE.md:13 |
| Design, scheduling and ad apps | Making, posting, running | Do not decide the week | We decide and draft; they can still make and run it | brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-5 alternatives |
| Review apps, analytics, social listening | They read one part of the store | They do not draft the work | We read across sources and draft | brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-6 where-we-sit |
Where we sit
| Drafts the work | Does not draft | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads your store | Brew: reads, writes Plays, drafts, hands off brew/SCOPE.md:11-20 | Review apps, analytics, social listening brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-6 where-we-sit |
| Does not read your store | Chat assistants, design apps, agencies working from a brief brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-6 where-we-sit | Schedulers and ad managers, which run what you give them brand-directions/book/content/b.js b-6 where-we-sit |
Our honest weak spots against each
| Weak spot | Who wins on it today | Source |
|---|---|---|
| We do not post, schedule or run ads in v1 | Schedulers and ad apps | brew/SCOPE.md:36-38 |
| We do not measure results in v1 | Analytics tools | brew/SCOPE.md:39 |
| Finished, polished creative is a paid final, and our team ships briefs per brief | Agencies and freelancers | brew/SCOPE.md:18 brew working tree docs/pricing.md:44 |
| No brand switcher for agencies | Any tool with many brands in one login | handbook content/product/personas.md |
| Reads are capped while we build | Any tool you can sign up for now | brand-directions/book/content/h.js h-6 programme |
The product already reads a brand's own rivals
Brew finds each brand's rivals, their ads and how AI answers name them, counted where the shopper named no brand brew/ai-standing.js:1-6. That is for the brand's rivals. We have never pointed it at our own.
Tomorrow
| Item | Version | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| A sourced list of the named tools design partners use, with each one's own pricing page and date read | v1 | New |
| Battlecards per category | v1 | Stays |
| Never a named rival in public, on a slide or in the product's own marketing | v1 to v4 | Stays brand-directions/book/content/i.js i-4 alternatives |
| Against schedulers: we post only after your yes, from the Play that decided it | v2 | Changes |
| Against analytics: we show what worked against the Play that made it | v3 | Changes |
| Against ad autopilots: rules and a budget you set, with undo | v4 | Changes |
How we do it
- In every design partner call, ask: which tools, people or agencies do you use for marketing today, and what does each cost you. Log the answer in the interview and call library.
- When a named tool comes up twice, read its own site and pricing page, free, and add a row to a named list here with the date read and the page address.
- Never call a paid source for this without asking Param first memory no-spend-while-building memory treg-usage-rules.
- Their ads can be read free from the public Ad Library through our local scraper memory fb-ad-library-mcp.
- Compare the job, never the brand, in anything a customer reads.
- If a founder asks for a head to head, say we do not publish comparisons and offer a read of their store.
Battlecards
One card per category. Use in a call; never on a public page with a name in it.
Doing it yourself
| When they say | I just do it myself on Sunday night |
| What is true | They know the brand best and pay nothing |
| What we say | Keep your voice. We read the reviews, ads and AI answers you never get to, and hand you a first draft with its proof |
| Show | One card's proof sheet from their own read |
| Never say | You are doing it wrong |
An agency
| When they say | Our agency handles this |
| What is true | Agencies make and ship; we do not in v1 |
| What we say | Keep them. We give them a better brief every week, written for an agency |
| Show | A brief with To set to your agency |
| Never say | Replace your agency |
A freelancer
| When they say | I have a designer for this |
| What is true | A freelancer ships fast on a clear job |
| What we say | We decide what to make and hand them one page with the words, specs and files |
| Show | The read only brief page on a phone |
| Never say | You will not need them |
A general AI chat
| When they say | I already use ChatGPT |
| What is true | It writes fast when you give it the facts |
| What we say | It only knows what you paste. We read the store first and every number shows where it came from |
| Show | A card's proof sheet, then the same question asked in a blank chat |
| Never say | It is worse than ChatGPT |
Design, scheduling and ad apps
| When they say | We have tools for posting and ads |
| What is true | They run the channel well |
| What we say | They run what you give them. We decide what to give them, and draft it |
| Show | Today with the week's picks |
| Never say | We post for you, before v2 ships |
Review apps, analytics and listening tools
| When they say | We already see our reviews and numbers |
| What is true | They read one part well |
| What we say | We read across them and turn what you see into a drafted Play |
| Show | A Heard card turned into a draft |
| Never say | We measure results, before v3 ships |
Numbers
| Metric | Definition | Where measured | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alternative named per call | What the founder uses today, by category | Interview and call library | Proposed |
| Losses to an alternative | Lost deals by the alternative they kept | Win and loss | Proposed |
Open
- Which named tools do we research first? No source names any. Proposal: the first three that design partners name in calls, nothing before.
- May we spend on competitor research? Proposal: free pages and the Ad Library only until the partnership ends.
- Do we ever publish a comparison page? Proposal: no; compare jobs in public and offer a read instead.
- Is our team a competitor to agencies, since it ships briefs? Proposal: no; say our team is one of the people a brand can hand off to, priced per brief, never bundled.