Case study / Marketing Accountability Council
A marketing promise creates an obligation. Who can explain whether the business is keeping it?
I founded the Marketing Accountability Council to make that question public. MAC’s writing, the developing Trust Index, and the Trust Gap experience connect the argument to questions teams can examine and decisions they can act on.
Follow the idea into practiceThe challenge
Marketing reports can show activity while leaving the operating problem unresolved. A product may disappoint. The total price may surprise people. A handoff may fail. The team may have no agreed owner for fixing the experience.
My corporate and consulting work kept returning to these questions. Leadership, data, incentives, ethics, and operations all affect what marketing can truthfully promise.
MAC gave that point of view a public home. The next step was to make the questions useful to someone facing a real decision.
The connected approach
Each part informs the next. Public examples shape the lens. The lens shapes the questions. Applying the questions reveals what needs a closer look.
Public argument
Publish the distance between a marketing promise, the evidence behind it, and the experience people receive.
Read MAC writingTrust Index lens
Examine product, price, place, promotion, and customer experience together.
Explore the Trust IndexDiagnostic questions
Turn the lens into questionnaire prompts about promises, evidence, ownership, and gaps.
See example questionsWorking application
Trust Gap offers an entry point; consulting brings the evidence, people, and next actions into the room.
See the Trust Gap caseWhat the application reveals becomes the next question to investigate, discuss, and publish.
The Trust Index lens
A customer encounters the whole offer. These example prompts show how the accountability lens reaches beyond the campaign.
| Dimension | Question to ask | Evidence to examine |
|---|---|---|
| 01Product | Does it deliver the value people were led to expect? | Product or service performance, customer feedback, and known limitations. |
| 02Price | Can people understand the exchange before committing? | Total cost, terms, fees, and what the offer includes. |
| 03Place | Can people access the value you promise? | Availability, channel access, service handoffs, and points of friction. |
| 04Promotion | Does the communication represent the offer clearly? | Claims, supporting sources, disclosures, and the expectations they create. |
| 05Customer experience | Does the experience hold together after the promise? | What customers encounter, who owns a breakdown, and how it is resolved. |
The work
The contribution sits across development, publishing, and application. Each has something a reader can follow.
Framework development
The Trust Index connected the accountability themes in MAC writing to a broader examination of marketing. My corporate experience informed the questions: what is promised, what supports it, and what people actually encounter?
Output and next step
A developing framework spanning the marketing mix and customer experience.
Read the framework contextPublic platform
I founded MAC as a public home for this work. It grew through other voices as well: co-founder Jacob Sanders and founding member Moni Oloyede contributed distinct editorial perspectives. Writing and conversation gave readers a record they could inspect and question.
Output and next step
A shared body of published analysis and accountability questions.
Read the publication archivePractical application
Questionnaire development and the Trust Gap experience carried the lens toward practical diagnosis. In advisory work, those questions become a starting point for reviewing evidence, surfacing disagreement, naming the decision, and assigning the work needed to address a gap.
Output and next step
Diagnostic prompts and an application path into an evidence review and action plan.
Explore an accountability reviewThe result
MAC provides published analysis readers can examine. The Trust Index gives that work a common lens. Questionnaire development carries the lens into prompts, and Trust Gap connects it to an experience people can explore.
For a client engagement, the questions become a starting point: what is known, what remains an assumption, who needs to decide, and what work follows?
The outputs described here are the publication, framework development, diagnostic questions, and application path. Their effect on customer trust or business performance requires a separate assessment.
Practical questions
MAC makes the accountability questions public. Consulting applies them to a specific organization: review the evidence, identify where the promise and experience separate, agree on the decision, and name who will carry the work. The public lens and the client engagement serve different purposes, but they ask related questions.
I founded MAC and brought my corporate marketing experience, writing, and consulting perspective. In my July 2025 interview, I also credited Jacob Sanders as a co-founder and Moni Oloyede as a founding member. MAC’s public thinking includes their writing and contributions from other practitioners.
It brings product, price, place, promotion, and customer experience into the same accountability conversation. The question is whether the whole offer earns trust: what value is promised, what evidence supports it, and what customers experience. The example questions on this page illustrate that lens.
Yes. Read the MAC publication and the Trust Index context, or follow the Trust Gap link to explore that experience. You can also use the example questions here to start an internal discussion. A consulting engagement is available when you need help assessing evidence, making decisions, or carrying the work into delivery.
This case describes framework development, public writing, questionnaire prompts, and a practical application path. The July 2025 interview described the Trust Index as a pilot. This page does not establish independent validation, a final scoring methodology, certification, or measured client performance.
Trust Gap is the Trust Index experience linked from this site. Its role in the wider system is to help people explore the distance between a promise and an experience. The separate Trust Gap case explains how that application connects to MAC’s public thinking and Jay’s consulting work.
Bring a promise worth examining
Bring the offer, the customer evidence, and the decision you need to make. We can identify the gap, the people who own it, and the next work to do.