13 min · Advanced
Project: A Complete Marketing Strategy
Produce a tagged strategy pack for Northline or your own business, then revise one slide after a skeptical finance read.
Learning objectives
- Assemble persona, positioning, offer, three messages, a channel plan, and three risks.
- Tag every claim fact from me, hypothesis, or needs a source.
- List what you must verify outside Gemini and revise one slide a skeptic would challenge.
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Why this matters
A strategy pack is a set of decisions you can defend, not a pile of headlines. Tags force you to separate what you know from what you hope. Milestones stop you from designing ads for a person you have not described. A skeptical friend is a feature of the project, not a threat to it.
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Concept
The project is a strategy pack, not a slogan page. Build it for Northline Coffee Roasters or for a real business you may discuss. Include a persona, positioning, an offer, three messages, a one-page channel plan, three risks, and what you must verify outside Gemini. If you use Northline, stay inside the case facts. If you use your own firm, paste notes first. You own every line a customer might read.
Tag every claim. Use fact from me when the line comes from your notes or the case sheet. Use hypothesis when you are guessing and you know it. Use needs a source when the line would matter and you lack proof. Untagged praise is a fail. Do not invent customer counts, awards, or savings. A thin pack with honest tags beats a thick pack that sounds funded. Read the tags aloud before you call it done.
Work in milestones so you do not draft ads before you know who they are for. Milestone one is the persona with quotes or an explicit gap. Milestone two is positioning and the offer, including exclusions. Milestone three is three messages that reuse the same proof. Milestone four is the one-page channel plan and the three risks. Milestone five is the outside-verify list. The exercise walks these in order. Skipping to headlines is how generic marketing sneaks back in.
Verification sits outside the chat. Prices, legal claims, competitor pages, and last month's sales are checked by you, a colleague, or a qualified person. Gemini can list what to check. It cannot complete the check. When a skeptical reader pushes on a slide, show the note behind the tag or change the line to a hypothesis. The pack is ready when a stranger can see what you know and what you still owe.
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Real-world example
Tags on a one-page Northline pack
A student built a one-page pack for Northline, not a new company myth. The persona for the kitchen buyer cited a quote from the case notes and was tagged fact from me. A line that reception staff want a brand story was tagged hypothesis. A line about rainy-week stall loss was tagged needs a source until a real tally exists. Positioning named the kitchen account, the job of a steady bean supply, the alternative of a paused subscription, and proof limited to the notes. Three messages reused that proof. The channel plan fit on one page. Three risks included the vague ad they already killed. The verify list left the chat.
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Gemini demonstration
A realistic exchange. Open Gemini beside this page and try a version with your own facts.
You
Strategy pack for Northline only. Include persona, positioning, offer, three messages, one-page channel plan, three risks, and what to verify outside the chat. Tag every claim fact from me, hypothesis, or needs a source. Do not invent customer counts, awards, or a saved-revenue ending. Offer price stays blank until I supply it.
Gemini
Pack skeleton with tags, not a miracle. Persona: kitchen buyer at an office that still reorders. Tag fact from me on the six-person roastery and on paused subscriptions. Tag hypothesis on any mood or income. Tag needs a source on rainy-week loss until a tally exists. Positioning: for the kitchen buyer, job is steady beans, alternative is the pause, proof is only the case note that one kitchen stayed. Offer: scope and price logic stay blank until you supply them. Three messages must reuse that same proof and must not add a community vibe. Channel plan: one page, office reorder call and Saturday stall, with the community ad marked stop. Risks: thin notes, rain costs unknown, and a message that fits any roaster. Verify outside: prices, paused count, stall tally.
You
A skeptical finance friend read slide two. It says rainy weeks lose money. We have not counted a Saturday. Revise that slide only. Do not invent a shortfall to satisfy them.
Gemini
The finance friend is right about slide two. The line that rainy weeks lose money is directionally what the case says, but a finance reader wants a tally, and you do not have one. Change the tag from fact from me to needs a source, or rewrite the line as a hypothesis that rain cuts stall takings while staff costs stay. Do not replace it with a made-up shortfall. Slide four, the killed community ad, can stay tagged fact from me if your process notes say you killed it because it named no one. Add one sentence the friend asked for: what would change your mind, which is a real Saturday tally. I will not polish the pack into confidence it has not earned. Leave the blanks visible.
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Prompt breakdown
The prompt
Role: strategy editor for either Northline Coffee Roasters or the real business in my notes. Task: produce a pack with persona, positioning, offer, three messages, a one-page channel plan, three risks, and an outside-verify list. Constraints: tag every claim as fact from me, hypothesis, or needs a source. Do not invent customer counts, testimonials, awards, or savings. Price and budget stay blank unless I typed them. If I did not paste a buyer quote, write missing quote. Output one page, not a slogan pile. End with the single slide a skeptical finance reader should attack first.
- The pack list matches the project so you do not stop at headlines.
- Required tags make fact, hypothesis, and missing proof visible on the page.
- The bans on counts and testimonials block the usual fake proof.
- Naming the slide a skeptic should attack gives you the revision target before you fall in love with the draft.
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Common mistakes
Usually
Write a confident plan that shows we will grow quickly, with round numbers.
Better
Tag every claim. If I did not supply the number, write needs a source and leave it out of customer-facing lines.
Usually
Add a quote from a happy office manager to make the persona real.
Better
Write missing quote, or use only words I pasted and tag them fact from me.
Usually
Skip the persona and draft five ads first.
Better
Follow the milestones: persona, then positioning and offer, then messages, then channel and risks.
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Practice exercise
Milestones for the strategy pack
Done when: Every claim is tagged fact from me, hypothesis, or needs a source, and the pack names what you must verify outside Gemini.
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Challenge
One slide for a finance friend
Finish the strategy pack, then hand one slide to a skeptical finance friend. The friend asks where the number came from. Revise that slide so every claim is tagged fact from me, hypothesis, or needs a source. If the friend would still reject a figure, remove the figure. Do not replace it with a smoother guess. You are done when the revised slide shows what would change your mind, and when nothing on it pretends the practice company has already won.
Hint: Pick the slide that sounds most certain. Certainty without a note behind it is the one to revise.
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Key takeaways
- The pack is persona, positioning, offer, three messages, a one-page channel plan, three risks, and an outside-verify list.
- Tag every claim fact from me, hypothesis, or needs a source.
- Milestones keep you from writing ads before you know who they are for.
- A skeptical finance read should change one slide, not inspire a fake number.
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