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The competitive intelligence brief

Turn a pile of competitor posts, pages, and emails into a sharp brief: the angles they keep hitting, where they're weak, and the gaps you can own.

medium ~45 min
when to reach for this

Watching competitors usually means a vague feeling that they're "doing a lot" and no plan that comes of it. This system turns raw competitor material into a structured brief: their recurring messages, their blind spots, and a shortlist of positioning gaps you can credibly own. Run it quarterly and you build a moving picture of the market instead of a one-time gut check.

gather this first
  • Competitor source material as files or pasted text — recent posts in competitor-a.txt, key landing pages, a few of their emails or ad headlines.
  • Your own positioning in a sentence or two, so Claude can find gaps relative to you, not in the abstract.
  • Who you're actually comparing against — name 2–3 real competitors, not the whole category.
the workflow

  1. Map what they're actually saying

    Save the competitor material into a folder, open it in Claude Desktop, and ask in the chat — no terminal needed. First get an unbiased read of their messaging before you go looking for weaknesses — otherwise you'll only see what you hoped to find.

    you ask
    Here are 10 recent posts and 2 landing pages from competitor-a.txt. What are the 3–4 messages they hammer most? What's their core promise, who are they clearly talking to, and what proof do they lean on? Summarize as a short positioning map.

    what you get back A clear positioning map — their repeated themes, their target reader, and the proof points they rely on — the picture you'd struggle to assemble by skimming.

  2. Find the cracks

    Now look for weakness: claims with no proof, audiences they ignore, topics they avoid. This is where your opportunities live.

    you ask
    Now critique them. Where is their messaging weak, vague, or unsupported? What audiences or use-cases are they clearly ignoring? What objections do they never address? Be specific and cite which post or page shows it.

    what you get back A grounded weakness list with receipts — "they claim 'enterprise-grade' but show no security proof; they never speak to small teams" — not hand-waving.

  3. Find the gaps you can own

    Cross their weaknesses against your real strengths. The goal is positioning that's both differentiated AND true for you — not just contrarian.

    you ask
    Here's our positioning: [one or two sentences]. Cross their blind spots against our actual strengths. Give me 3 angles we could credibly own that they're ignoring — and for each, why it's true for us and hard for them to copy.

    what you get back Three defensible positioning angles, each tied to a real strength of yours and a real gap of theirs — the strategic payoff.

  4. Turn it into a one-page brief

    Package it so it's useful to people who weren't in the analysis — your founder, your sales team, a freelancer writing copy.

    you ask
    Assemble all of this into a one-page competitive brief: their positioning, their weaknesses, our 3 ownable angles, and 5 content ideas that lean into those angles. Plain language, skimmable.

    what you get back A shareable one-pager that turns the analysis into something Sales and content can both act on.

make it your own
  • Recurring watch: keep a competitors/ folder and re-run quarterly; ask Claude to diff against last quarter's brief to spot strategy shifts.
  • Ad teardown: narrow it to paid — paste their ad headlines and ask what offer and audience each is testing.
  • Win/loss tie-in: feed in notes from deals you lost to them and ask Claude to reconcile their claimed strengths with how they actually win.
watch out for
  • Claude only knows what you paste in — it isn't browsing their site live. The brief is exactly as current as your source files, so date them.
  • Gather it cleanly. Use public material — published posts, pages, ad headlines. Don't feed in anything from behind a login, under an NDA, or from a paywalled tool you agreed not to share. Competitive research that crosses that line is a legal exposure, not an edge.
  • Differentiation has to be true, not just different. An angle you can't actually back up is a liability, not positioning — and any claim that names a competitor should clear the same brand/legal review as your launch copy.
  • Don't obsess over competitors at the expense of customers. This is one input; what your buyers say should outweigh what your rivals post.

you'll end up with A repeatable quarterly brief that turns scattered competitor material into a positioning map, a weakness list, and a shortlist of gaps you can credibly own — shareable across Marketing and Sales.

Questions people ask

Does Claude browse my competitors' websites live?
No. Claude only knows what you paste in — it isn't visiting their site in real time. The brief is exactly as current as your source files, so collect fresh posts and pages and date them when you save.
What do I need to gather before I start?
Recent competitor material as files or pasted text (posts, landing pages, ad headlines), your own positioning in a sentence or two, and the names of 2–3 real competitors you're actually compared against — not the whole category.
How often should I run this?
Quarterly works well. Keep a `competitors/` folder and re-run it each quarter, asking Claude to diff against last quarter's brief so you see strategy shifts instead of a one-time snapshot.
How do I make sure the positioning angles are actually usable?
Cross the competitor's blind spots against your real strengths and keep only angles that are true for you and hard for them to copy. Differentiation has to be true, not just different — an angle you can't back up is a liability, not positioning.