By Paul Wiefels, co-founder & senior advisor of The Chasm Group, LLC
If you follow enough political commentary, you’ll eventually hear politicians, party leaders, strategists, and communications directors claim that their policy or strategy is sound—the real issue, they insist, is that “we’re not communicating it effectively.” Perhaps. But often it’s simply not true.
The same pattern shows up in the private sector, especially in go‑to‑market efforts or attempts to pivot a company out of stasis or decline. The time-worn cliché captures it well: “The dogs aren’t eating the dog food.” The “dogs” may be customers, investors, partners, analysts, or financial markets. This lament echoes from the boardroom to the sales floor.
Look closer, and you usually find that messaging issues are symptoms, not causes. When messages don’t land, it’s often because the underlying strategy is stale, irrelevant, incoherent, or inauthentic—yet messaging is expected to disguise or compensate for that. The problem isn’t the audience; it’s the purveyor.
Returning to the dog‑food analogy, the issue may be that:
- The dogs aren’t hungry—you missed feeding time.
- The dogs prefer different food. Or they don’t like yours.
- They aren’t dogs at all; they’re cats—and cats eat differently.
Human beings are far more complex. Assuming messaging fails because of the messaging (or the messenger) is simplistic—and usually wrong. We heard it. We just don’t like it. Or we’ve heard it too many times already. Or it doesn’t feel new, relevant, or responsive to our circumstances. Or it covers everything and says nothing of value.
Messaging not landing? Don’t look at the audience. Look in the mirror. Because messaging is never the first thing to fail. Strategy is. Messaging just exposes it. When people don’t respond, they’re not confused. They’re telling you something you likely don’t want to hear.