ACM blog · Marketing and Education
What we learn by measuring brands.
The method, the archetypes, guides and case studies, for brands, agencies, teachers and students.
Most readWho is USM? Group SMK260 measures the university’s brand7 minFour people, four cafés: a brand has four characters10 minSmile Dent Team: a brand audit of a dental clinic6 min
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Reading guide
New to ACM? Read in this order.
- 1Start withFour people, four cafés: a brand has four charactersthe basic idea, on an example · 10 min→
- 2ThenBelieves, Does, Expects, Sees: four brand perspectivesthe 4 perspectives · 6 min→
- 3ThenSix gaps, six questions about your brandthe 6 gaps · 6 min→
- 4FinallyThe 12 brand archetypes, on one mapthe 12 archetypes, on one map · 8 min→
Recent
EducationSmile Dent Team: a brand audit of a dental clinicA brand audit of a dental clinic starts by choosing the public and the four perspectives. A team from group SMK260 is measuring the Smile Dent Team brand with ACM Framework, over one semester.EducationWho is USM? Group SMK260 measures the university’s brandYes, ACM Framework fits a university brand: it has people who lead it, channels it publishes on and a public that chooses it. Group SMK260 is measuring the USM brand, starting with the Faculty of Economic Sciences.Blog ACMArchetypes are not a horoscope: what ACM Framework takes from JungArchetypes are a vocabulary, not a law of nature, and ACM Framework uses them as a ruler, not as a foundation. What makes the measurement serious is the rules: rated statements, independent coders and thresholds that stop a number before it reaches the report.Blog ACMWhy I published the method before the dataA marketing framework can only be checked if it wrote down its assumptions before the data, with a date, in a public place. ACM Framework published its rules and declared 95 benchmarks before any measurement, so that the predictions can be compared with what comes out.Blog ACMWhat would refute ACM Framework: how a brand method is testedA brand framework is tested by writing down in advance which result would contradict it. ACM Framework has four conditions that would bring it down, all of them about measurement, and five that would narrow its claims, including the link with performance.Blog ACMWhat ACM Framework doesn’t claim: the limits of a brand auditA brand audit can’t tell you how much you will sell and can’t compare different markets. ACM Framework writes its boundaries up front: it doesn’t predict sales, doesn’t compare countries, has provisional thresholds, doesn’t measure employees and gives no index from partial data.Blog ACMFrom RIFC to ACM Framework: message clarity, brand coherenceRIFC checks whether a message is clear to the person it was written for, before you publish it. ACM Framework checks whether the brand resembles itself across all channels, over time.EducationRepromed, the first brand measured by group SMK260Group SMK260 at USM begins a semester of brand audit at the Repromed Hospital with the ACM Framework method: four perspectives, six distances and a baseline snapshot the hospital can carry on by itself.Blog ACMWhy four gaps are closed and two are calibratedFour ACM Framework gaps measure whether the brand is understood, and they should be brought as close to zero as possible. Contrast and Boldness measure whether it is chosen, and there you look for an optimal zone: a brand identical to its category is fine, but easy to replace.Blog ACMCoherent doesn't mean the same: a brand on 20 channelsA brand that is coherent across all its channels has the same character, expressed in each channel's language, not the same post everywhere. ACM Framework gives each channel a profile and a status, so you can see where the brand speaks in its own voice and where it has started speaking in another.Blog ACMWhat ACM Framework is not: archetype, personality, fitACM Framework does not choose your archetype, it is not a brand personality test, and it does not measure how much the brand resembles the customer. It measures whether the brand resembles itself, seen from four places, and whether the declared archetype is the one actually lived.Blog ACMThe 12 brand archetypes, on one mapThe 12 brand archetypes are the Innocent, the Sage, the Explorer, the Outlaw, the Magician, the Hero, the Lover, the Jester, the Everyman, the Caregiver, the Creator and the Ruler, grouped into four motivations. In ACM Framework, each has a card that says what it does, how it speaks and where its limit lies.Blog ACMSix gaps, six questions about your brandA gap is the distance between two perspectives on the same brand: how many points you would have to move for the profiles to match. ACM Framework measures six gaps, each with its own question, from “does it do what it says?” to “how far does it depart from the norm?”.MarketingFour people, four cafés: a brand has four charactersBrand coherence is the distance between four pictures of the same brand: what management believes, what the brand publishes, what the client expects from the category and what they actually see. ACM Framework puts them on the same map and shows where the picture breaks and what to fix first.Blog ACMBelieves, Does, Expects, Sees: four brand perspectivesACM Framework looks at a brand from four places: what management believes, what the brand publishes, what the customer expects from the category and what the customer who knows the brand sees. All four answer the same 12 statements, so they can land on the same map.MarketingThe brand you believe in isn't the one the client seesClients see a brand differently from the company because they look from a different place: the company from its intentions, the client from what they receive. ACM Framework puts the two pictures on the same map and shows where the road between them breaks.MarketingThe 8 moments when a brand audit changes a decisionYou need a brand audit whenever you are making a brand decision and don’t know where you are starting from. ACM Framework does it at eight moments, across four phases, from the starting audit to periodic measurement.