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PRO Brand Strategy Framework

PRO Brand Strategy Framework

Stephen Houraghan · Brand Master Academy · 2020

Introduction
Twelve Steps From Brand Core to Identity

Stephen Houraghan is a brand strategist and coach who founded Brand Master Academy (Houraghan, n.d.). He presents the PRO Brand Strategy Framework as a playbook for strategists who build a brand for themselves or for clients (Houraghan, n.d.). His point is that a brand is not made of logos, colours or fonts. It is made by shaping how the audience sees the business, and that takes a strategy with a clear framework. He compares a brand to a house. The building blocks have to go in a certain order, or the brand ends up misaligned. The twelve steps run from the brand core through audience, competitors, positioning and persona to message and story. The visual identity comes last (Houraghan, n.d.).

The Model

PRO Brand Strategy Framework: twelve numbered steps in three rows of four, linked by arrows from Uncover Your Brand Core to Design Your Brand Identity System
Schematic after Houraghan (n.d., section A Framework for a Successful Brand Strategy)

Elements

Definitions follow Houraghan (n.d.), who explains each step in a short paragraph. Only the ninth step names brands as examples.

Twelve Steps

  • 01

    Uncover Your Brand Core

    The work starts with the business and brand leaders, because the meaning of the brand has to come from them. Through discovery and joint work they settle four things. These are why the brand exists, where it is going, what it stands by and how it behaves (Houraghan, n.d., Step 1).

  • 02

    Develop Your Buyer Personas

    Many brands say they know their audience, but few know it in depth. This step takes the time to understand who the buyers are and how they split into groups, because much of the brand follows from that (Houraghan, n.d., Step 2).

  • 03

    Weigh Up the Competitive Brands

    Customers already have choices. A brand that offers the same as others starts behind those that are already known. Here the team studies the competition, to see where it is strong and which gaps it leaves open for the brand (Houraghan, n.d., Step 3).

  • 04

    Forge Your Differentiation Strategy

    With audience and competitors mapped, the team sees the market from above. It then takes the openings that competitors left and works each one into a full idea for how the brand could stand out (Houraghan, n.d., Step 4).

  • 05

    Define Your Strategic Market Position

    Now the team checks that audience and differentiation fit together and that the market can carry the idea. Then it fixes the position, which says what the brand offers, for whom, how it differs from the alternatives and what benefit it brings (Houraghan, n.d., Step 5).

  • 06

    Align Your Brand Archetype

    Brand archetypes go back to the psychiatrist Carl Jung. The team first uses them to read the personality type of its audience, and then to shape a brand personality that is likely to attract that type (Houraghan, n.d., Step 6).

  • 07

    Shape Your Brand Personality Strategy

    The archetype gives only the outline. The team fills it in with the brand's opinions about its industry, the world and life in general. That detail makes the personality credible and gives the audience someone to connect with (Houraghan, n.d., Step 7).

  • 08

    Find Your Brand Voice & Tone

    Voice and tone are how the personality speaks, in writing and aloud. The more familiar the language sounds to the audience, the more willing people are to listen to what the brand says (Houraghan, n.d., Step 8).

  • 09

    Uncover Your Human Brand Persona

    Archetype, personality and voice add up to one character, the brand as a person. Usually this character has no body. It shows in how the brand acts at every touchpoint, through its look, colours, images, message, story and tone (Houraghan, n.d., Step 9).

    GEICO and McDonald's: Some brands do give the persona a body. GEICO has its gecko, and McDonald's has Ronald McDonald (Houraghan, n.d., Step 9).

  • 10

    Define Your Brand Messaging Framework

    The brand message is written for the audience that the persona is meant to reach. Once the team knows their problems, hopes and fears, it can aim the message at what matters to them (Houraghan, n.d., Step 10).

  • 11

    Craft Your Brand Storytelling Framework

    People pay more attention to information that comes as a story. Houraghan cites the neuroscientist Uri Hasson, whose finding is that people are 22 times more attentive. In this step the strategist turns the brand message into a story that can be told at every touchpoint (Houraghan, n.d., Step 11).

  • 12

    Design Your Brand Identity System

    Here the strategy is handed over to visual design. A designer who receives the full strategy sees the job more clearly than one who works without it, and the identity gains from that (Houraghan, n.d., Step 12).

Source

  1. Houraghan, S. (n.d.). PRO Brand Strategy Framework (A Strategist Playbook + Examples). Brand Master Academy. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://brandmasteracademy.com/brand-strategy-framework/

Part of the Brand Identity Model Atlas. The atlas underpins the Brand-Building Canvas: a practical one-page brand identity and strategy framework for building, auditing, and repositioning brands. Download the PDF or PowerPoint template, or compare all brand identity models in the overview.