# TASK 54 — Marcom round: free-forever positioning + merch (queued 2026-10-08)

> Catalog: [`TASKS.md`](../TASKS.md) — status and requirements live here.

**Why:** the monetization decision changed. LlamaCasty launches **watermark-free and free as in beer,
forever** — no paid tiers, no branding flash. The old watermark-paid-delta plan (TASK 10) is
superseded. Money, if any, comes from **gratuity and branded merch**, never from gating the app.

**History of the ruling (creator-led, 2026-10-08):** feature set is locked for v1; there are no new
pricing tiers to build. The compensation decision: ship the app free and watermark-free, put a
coffee jar / merch storefront in front of people, done. Assistant recommendation that was accepted:
**print-on-demand merch** instead of a tip jar for the main channel, because a t-shirt the viewer
wears is free advertising a donation is not.

**Done so far:**

- ✅ llamacasty.com stripped of ALL pricing (2026-10-08): plans ($0/$10/$400), the feature chart,
  the "made with LlamaCasty!" flash copy, and the `#pricing` section replaced with a **free-forever
  band**: "Free forever. Completely yours." — no watermark, no branding on stream, no subscription,
  no account. Nav + footer relinked to `#free`. Deployed + verified live (0 pricing refs).
- ✅ Ruling recorded: no watermark, no branding-flash, app ships as-is.

**Merch plan (accepted, corrected 2026-10-08):**

- **Printful as the producer/fulfillment** (quality + creative control). **CORRECTION:** Printful has
  **no first-party storefront available to us** — its "Quick Stores" is US-seller/US-buyer only (and
  no custom domain), so it never appears on the store-connect page. A storefront *layer* is required.
  Chosen: **Big Cartel** (free plan = 5 products, custom domain, artist/independent positioning —
  the exact lineup size) integrated via Printful's connect flow; **Square Online's** free plan is the
  fallback. One store only, linked prominently on llamacasty.com and in the app's About pop-up
  ("so it's always present").
- **Small lineup: 3–5 items** to start (t-shirt, mug, sticker set — the llama logo is the obvious
  draw). Assets live in `llamacasty.web/assets/img/` (icon-512.png, logo.webp, gramps-480.webp).

**In-app tasks bundled here (small, App-layer only):**

- ☐ Branding-flash text becomes **"llamacasty.com"** (single small mention) instead of the
  "made with LlamaCasty!" overlay — pending the "no branding, completely yours" wording conflict:
  a streamer showing zero branding and a streamer showing "llamacasty.com" are different promises;
  creator to pick.
- ☐ Add the merch/storefront links to the **About pop-up** so the store is reachable from inside
  the app at all times.

**Marcom write-up:** capture this whole decision (positioning, competitor note — Meld Studio runs
free core + paid AI tiers and a merch store; ArtCraft monetizes AI credits — the free-forever
difference) into the dedicated **marcom.md** file once the creator creates it. This task file is the
working copy until then.