Flagship · 12 weeks
Category Narrative Intensive
For operators who can already describe the product and still lose the room when asked “compared with whom?” Informational fee: AUD 8,400 per seat, invoiced before week one.
What you leave with
A signed category claim (one sentence), a competitor grid with named alternatives, a refusal list of phrases the company will no longer print, and a principal speaking brief of no more than two pages. You also receive a recorded critique of one live pitch from week ten.
You will not leave with a visual identity, a media plan, or a renamed product. Those sit outside the room on purpose.
Modules
- 01–02Evidence before adjectives. Collect the last twelve lost deals and the language buyers used when they walked. We treat that corpus as the brief, not the existing website.
- 03–04Named alternatives. Map who actually occupies the shortlist. Generic “legacy players” are not allowed as a row.
- 05–06The claim and the cost. Draft the sentence and list what the company must stop offering for the sentence to remain true.
- 07–08Proof attachments. Every clause gets a artefact: a metric, a customer scene, or a capability you can demonstrate in ninety seconds.
- 09–10Hostile reading. An external reviewer (not your agency) attacks the claim. You rewrite under time.
- 11–12Mandate lock. Legal, sales, and the principal sign the same two pages. We record one delivery and annotate cadence, not charm.
Programme lead
Mara Ellison
Mara spent a decade inside Australian B2B houses before opening the Appcraftgrid desk. She writes mandates, not mood boards, and still sits in week-nine hostile readings herself.
Fees (informational)
AUD 8,400 per seat. A second seat from the same company is AUD 6,900. The fee covers twelve live sessions, written critiques, and the mandate pack. Travel to Collum Collum is not included. This page does not take payment.
Reviews from this programme
Module 03 made us name two regional distributors we had been pretending were “partners.” Once they sat on the grid as alternatives, the website’s opening paragraph looked theatrical.
★★★★☆ — Completing the refusal list was the useful part. I still think week 01’s homework load is heavy if you run a sales team at the same time.
Questions
Can we skip the competitor grid if we already have a strategy deck?
No. Existing decks are usually organised by pillars, not by who actually sits on the shortlist. The grid is the price of entry to later modules.
Is this suitable for consumer brands with seasonal campaigns?
Poorly. The intensive assumes a repeating B2B or professional-services sale. Seasonal fashion and entertainment launches need a different clock than we teach here.
What is a real limitation of the format?
We do not fix distribution. A clear category seat will not repair a channel that cannot reach the buyer. Several alumni finished with a strong mandate and still needed a separate commercial rebuild; we will say so in week two if that is obvious.