What the brand believes, what it does and what the customer sees. On the same map.
ACM Framework measures a brand’s coherence from 4 perspectives: what leadership believes, what the brand publishes, what the customer expects and how they see it. It places them on the same map of 12 archetypes and calculates 6 gaps, so you can see where the brand breaks and what to fix first. The method is openly published, with a DOI.
- 4perspectives
- 6gaps
- 12archetypes
- 3tiers
One concept. Several solutions.
The same ACM matrix, with its 12 archetypes and 4 perspectives, applied where you work.
FRAMEWORK AUTHOR · D. TALMAZAN · 2026The concept · 12 archetypes · 4 perspectives · 6 gapsSee where your brand’s coherence breaks down: between what leadership believes, what the brand publishes and what the customer sees.
See the solution →EducationEducationFor universities, colleges and secondary schoolsStudents measure real brands with the same method; the teacher tracks the groups, the institution sees everything.
See the solution →Human ResourcesHuman ResourcesFor HR departmentsThe same method, applied to the people in the organisation.
Coming soonFour sources in. One diagnosis out.
Each perspective becomes a profile on the same 12 archetypes. The matrix compares them and shows where coherence holds and where it breaks down.
Believes, does, expects, sees: people, materials, a survey.
Everything on 12 archetypes, 100 points each, on the same scale.
Six gaps with their noise floor, the tier and the type of coherence.
Two axes. Four perspectives. One brand.
The brand axis is at the top, the customer axis at the bottom. On the left, what should be; on the right, what is.
Believes
“Who do we believe we are?”
What the brand tells itself about itself. The 12-statement survey, completed by at least 3 people in leadership (online or assisted), plus the archetype each of them declares; documents are coded separately.
- Who answers
- the brand’s leadership
- What is collected
- at least 3 people
- Decision in the platform
- Who we are
Does
“What do we actually show on our channels?”
What the brand publishes, channel by channel. Materials are coded on 12 archetypes, 100 points per material.
- Who answers
- coders who don’t know which brand it is
- What is collected
- materials from each channel
- Decision in the platform
- How we adapt to each channel
Expects
“What does a person expect from a good brand?”
What a good brand in the category should be, in the eyes of an ordinary person. From the survey, before the brand is mentioned.
- Who answers
- the general public, in the public survey
- What is collected
- at least 150 complete responses
- Decision in the platform
- How different we want to be
Sees
“How do the people who know us see us?”
What the audience that knows the brand perceives, on the channels it uses. The same survey, straight after.
- Who answers
- people who know the brand, from the same survey
- What is collected
- responses from people who know it
- Decision in the platform
- Where we act and when we re-measure
Six distances between perspectives
Each pair of perspectives answers one question. Four aim for zero; contrast and boldness have an optimal zone, because a brand identical to its category is interchangeable.
From statement to diagnosis
- 1You set up the brand
Identity, the channels you audit and the measurement conditions. Everything dated.
- 2You collect the four perspectives
The leadership survey, materials from the channels, a survey with screening questions.
- 3Everything on 12 archetypes
Each source becomes a 100-point profile, on the same scale.
- 4You read the results in the Command centre
The quadrant, the six gaps with their noise floor and the two-axis diagnosis.
USM · UTMUniversity lecturer
ACM · RIFC · SiR3 original methods
Dumitru Talmazan
Marketing strategist, researcher and university lecturer at USM and UTM. Author of ACM Framework, RIFC Protocol and SiR Metrics.
He builds methods that make what feels intuitive in marketing measurable. RIFC measures how clear a message is before it is published; ACM measures a brand’s coherence between what it believes, what it does and what the customer sees. He teaches digital marketing at Moldova State University and the Technical University of Moldova and is the founder of Talmazan School.
R + (I × F) = CThe emotional mathematics of marketing: message clarity, scored 0–110. Tool: RIFC.AIrifcmarketing.com ↗Open instrument · Zenodo ↗Preregistered on OSF · 17.02.2026 ↗4 perspectives · 6 gaps · 12 archetypesArchetypal Coherence Matrix: brand coherence on the same map.acmframework.com ↗Open instrument · Zenodo ↗Benchmarks registered on OSF · 24.09.2026 ↗SiR MetricsThe Shortlist Inclusion Rate (SIR) shows how often a brand appears in the recommendations of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and DeepSeek, and how it is described; it comes from the Agentic Shortlist Economy (ASE) research program, whose preprint appeared on Zenodo on 1 November 2026.DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23867982 ↗- TeachingLecturer at USM and UTMdigital marketing · since 2024
- Moldova State UniversityDigital Marketing and AI · Innovation Marketing · Digital Marketingsince 2025 · bachelor's and master's
- Technical University of MoldovaFundamentals of Digital Marketing · Digital Marketing Audit · Digital Marketing Strategiessince 2024
- EducationExecutive MBA, SynergyAMBA-accredited · 2020
- Research“One brand – five feeds”multi-network strategy · 2025
The rules are public. Anyone can check them.
No black box: both of the author’s frameworks have their rules published and registered, with a date, before any measurement is made.
Published openly on Zenodo under the CC BY 4.0 licence, with version history. Anyone can read the rules, scales and formulas.
Zenodo · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22926708 ↗ ACMOThe benchmarksDeclared on 24.09.2026, before any data was collected, and frozen. The answer to “didn’t you adjust them afterwards?”.
OSF · DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/6NDRB ↗ RIFCZThe instrumentThe formula, the 40 sub-factors with their weights, the relevance gate and the measured coefficients. Published on Zenodo under CC BY 4.0.
Zenodo · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23001429 ↗ RIFCOThe preregistrationThe RIFC validation protocol, preregistered on 17.02.2026. The hypotheses and method were fixed before data collection.
OSF · DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/9Y75D ↗ AuthoriDAuthorDumitru Talmazan, uniquely identified in the international researcher registry. This links both frameworks to the same person.
ORCID 0009-0003-2715-5715 ↗Talmazan, D. (2026). Archetypal Coherence Matrix: an instrument for measuring brand coherence across touchpoints. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22926708
What we learn by measuring brands.
The method, the archetypes, guides and case studies from both platforms.
How can we help?
or choose a category
The method
Four perspectives on the same brand: what leadership believes (Believes), what the brand publishes on its channels (Does), what the customer expects from a good brand in the category (Expects) and how the market sees it (Sees). Each becomes a profile on the same 12 archetypes.
The distance between two perspectives. 6 gaps are calculated between the 4, and the diagnosis shows coherence on two axes (the brand’s and the customer’s), across 3 tiers.
Yes. The instrument is published openly on Zenodo under the CC BY 4.0 licence, with version history. The benchmarks were declared on OSF on 24.09.2026, before any data was collected, and frozen.
A new collection after 3, 6 or 12 months. The current collection is frozen, stays in the history and is compared with the next one.
ACM Marketing is for brands and agencies: you see where your brand’s coherence breaks down. ACM Education is for universities, colleges and secondary schools: students measure real brands with the same method, the teacher tracks the groups, the institution sees everything. ACM Human Resources is coming soon.
Yes. The Marketing demo (app.acmframework.com/demo) shows the sample brand Nord Atelier, fully measured. The Education demo (edu.acmframework.com/demo) shows a sample group, read-only. The data is fictional.
The owner can transfer it to ACM Marketing, with all the results. The owner becomes Owner in ACM Marketing, and the marketing team becomes Admin.
No. One account for ACM Marketing and ACM Education. If you have access in several places or institutions, you choose after logging in and can switch at any time from the menu.
It sends an access request. The ACM team confirms it, and the institution gets its own address: <abbreviation>.acmframework.com.
Through the invitation the teacher sends by email. They log in with their ACM account or create one with an email and password, then land straight in the group and the brand.
Project data is used for research only in anonymised form, under clause 9 of the terms.
Each role sees what it needs: the Owner and the Admin manage everything, the Editor sets up and collects, the Viewer only reads, and the Coder sees only the materials received, without the brand’s name.
Nothing found. Try another word or write to us.
Still have a question?
If you can’t find the answer here, try the demo or write to us.