An agent with no brand context does not stay quiet. It fills the gap with whatever the internet sounds like.
The fix is not a longer prompt. It is one document the draft is written against, with rules that can be checked.
A filled rule set
Foxglove Bakery, a fictional client.
identity
- positioning: "a neighbourhood bakery that does wedding cakes properly"
- audience: couples booking 6 to 12 months ahead, within 20 miles
- tone: warm, plain, never precious
vocabulary
- use: bakery, cake tasting, lead time, deposit
- avoid: artisanal, curated, bespoke, journey
rules
must quote a lead time in weeks on every wedding page
must not promise a design before a tasting
should name the flour and the butter when describing a cake
should not use more than one exclamation mark per page
may mention the owner by first name
refusals
- no price without a serving count
- no delivery claim outside the stated radius
- no review text we cannot show
The check, on one draft
An agent produced this sentence for the weddings page.
draft: "Our artisanal, bespoke cakes are crafted on a journey of
flavour, delivered anywhere you like!"
checked
must lead time in weeks missing
must not promise before a tasting ok
should name flour and butter missing
should not more than one exclamation ok, one
vocabulary avoid list 2 hits: artisanal, bespoke
revised: "Wedding cakes are booked eight to twelve weeks ahead. Each
tier is baked with French butter and stoneground flour. We
deliver within 20 miles of the bakery."
Two vocabulary hits, one missing must, and one missing should. That is a check a person can run in a minute, and it is why grading matters.
Why severities
A rule without a severity flattens everything. “Never claim an unmeasured result” and “prefer the serial comma” are not the same kind of instruction.
Must fails a draft. Should flags it in review. May gives permission, so
nobody corrects it.
Acceptance: the profile is usable when
- positioning and audience are in the client’s own words
- the avoid list has at least five words the client actually dislikes
- every rule carries a severity
- two samples of real copy are stored as references
- a change to the document arrives as a proposal a person accepts
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Every draft needs a full rewrite | The rule set is empty or generic | Seed it from three real pages |
| A rule is broken constantly | It is a must that is really a preference |
Demote it to should |
| Two writers produce different tones | They read different sources | Point both at the accepted revision |
| A proposal rebased itself silently | The document moved | Refuse the patch and re-propose |
| The client cannot explain the voice | The audience line is a demographic | Rewrite it as a person |
Limits
A brand document does not write anything. It constrains what is written.
It also cannot fix a business that has not decided what it sells. That decision belongs to the person, and the document records it.