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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, a brand strategist, educator and coach, is the founder of Brand Master Academy, where branding professionals and entrepreneurs come to learn how to build brands with brand strategy systems, processes and frameworks (Houraghan, n.d.). He presents the PRO Brand Strategy Framework as a playbook for strategists who build a brand for themselves or for a client (Houraghan, n.d.). As Houraghan (n.d.) puts it, building a brand is not about logos, colours or fonts but about influencing how the audience perceives the business, and that takes a strategy built with a clear framework. Like a house, a brand needs its building blocks placed in a certain order: an element developed at the wrong time, or a consideration left out, can leave the brand misaligned. The twelve steps therefore run from the brand core through audience, competitors, differentiation and position to archetype, personality, voice, persona, message and story, and only then to the visual identity (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
Redrawn after Houraghan (n.d.), schematic of the twelve steps in order.

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 first step draws heavily on the business and brand leaders, because it extracts the meaning of the brand from their perspective. Through discovery and collaboration it uncovers why the brand exists, where it is going, what it is committed to and how it will behave (Houraghan, n.d., Step 1).

  • 02

    Develop Your Buyer Personas

    So much of the brand stems from who the audience is and how it is segmented that this step takes the time needed to get into the heads and hearts of that group of people. Few brands are built with that level of understanding (Houraghan, n.d., Step 2).

  • 03

    Weigh Up the Competitive Brands

    The target market already has options through competitors, and a brand that offers the same thing is at a disadvantage against brands that already have presence and awareness. This step uncovers what competitors do well and where they leave gaps the brand could exploit (Houraghan, n.d., Step 3).

  • 04

    Forge Your Differentiation Strategy

    Audience research and competitor analysis give a bird's-eye view of the market. From there, the gaps that competitors leave open are developed into fully fledged positioning ideas (Houraghan, n.d., Step 4).

  • 05

    Define Your Strategic Market Position

    Once the differentiation strategy and the target market are aligned, and the market is confirmed to be big enough, the position is set: what the brand does, whom it does it for, how it differs from existing options, and what benefit and value it adds for the audience (Houraghan, n.d., Step 5).

  • 06

    Align Your Brand Archetype

    With the audience and its desires known, the strategist uncovers the audience's personality type with brand archetypes, a framework going back to the psychiatrist Carl Jung. It helps first to understand the personality of the audience and then to develop the brand personality most likely to appeal to it (Houraghan, n.d., Step 6).

  • 07

    Shape Your Brand Personality Strategy

    The archetype is only a starting point. To make the brand feel like a persona the audience can connect with, attitudes on the industry, opinions on the wider world and broader beliefs add detail and believability to its personality (Houraghan, n.d., Step 7).

  • 08

    Find Your Brand Voice & Tone

    The tone of voice carries the traits defined for the personality into the written and spoken word. An audience that reads or hears language and tone that feel familiar is far more open to the message (Houraghan, n.d., Step 8).

  • 09

    Uncover Your Human Brand Persona

    Archetype, personality and voice come together in a character that represents the human brand. For most brands this persona does not appear as a figure; it lives in the traits the brand shows at every touchpoint, through visual identity, typography, colour, image style, message, story and tone of voice (Houraghan, n.d., Step 9).

    GEICO and McDonald's: Some brands bring the persona to life as an actual character, as GEICO did with its gecko and McDonald's with Ronald McDonald (Houraghan, n.d., Step 9).

  • 10

    Define Your Brand Messaging Framework

    With the human brand persona and a close knowledge of the audience and what it wants, the brand message is written to land in their hearts and minds. Knowing their challenges, pain points, hopes, dreams, fears and desires lets the message resonate on a deep, human level (Houraghan, n.d., Step 10).

  • 11

    Craft Your Brand Storytelling Framework

    People pay far more attention to information delivered as a story; Houraghan cites the neuroscientist Uri Hasson, by whose findings people are 22 times more attentive. In this step the strategist wraps the brand message into story-based information that can be delivered at every touchpoint (Houraghan, n.d., Step 11).

  • 12

    Design Your Brand Identity System

    Here the work crosses over from strategy to visual identity. A designer who has all the strategic information and direction gains a vantage point that designers without a strategy lack, and the visual identity gets an edge from it (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/