Written by Joe Tetreault | 11 January 2010

This strikes me as right. When peddling a message, speaking is almost the least important aspect of communication. Especially when your brand is as damaged as Domino's has been and the GOP is. Republicans continue to be unloved, except compared to Democrats. But being the other guy is an insufficient mechanism for building your brand. Domino's was unloved compared to other pizza places that didn't deliver, but they delivered and convenience trumped taste. Until the playing field leveled. With 30 minute delivery a reality for most pizzerias, Domino's niche of delivering barely edible entrees to your doorstep disappeared. But for year's Domino's pressed on delivering inadequate meals to fewer and fewer customers.

They easily could have avoided the problem by pulling back on their ad budget, focusing on understanding what customers actually wanted and adjusting their offerings to fit. Listening to the complaints before attempting to fix the perceived problems seems commonsensical. It's not. Too many firms focus on creating buzz or building message that they don't bother discovering if the message has a chance to be received. And it isn't just pizza that doesn't get delivered.

Take the now failed Jay Leno experiment. NBC - to cut costs - filled their 10pm weeknight slot with an early version of their late night talk shows. The ratings were poor. Affiliates were unhappy. But because production costs were low, the revenue, while reduced, was acceptable to the brain trust making decisions at NBC. It took a near revolt from the affiliates whose evening newscasts were seeing diminished ratings before NBC acknowledged the obvious, few wanted to buy the product they were selling. And while the HuffPo's Dan Abramson is joking a little when tells NBC he can hadle them slapping him in the face, the truth of his argument is undeniable. NBC built their prime time strategy around a product without listening to their audience to determine whether it was wanted. Investing in a product without understanding the market is not only foolish, it's wasteful as well.

Companies that are too big to fail might be able to survive such mistakes by relying on government largess. Domino's knew there was no pizza bailout coming to save them. They evaluated their product offering, listened to what people wanted and retooled their operation. NBC's niche also vanished. With cable and now internet delivery of entertainment more choices in the marketplace demands a greater fealty to what viewers want. NBC failed that simple task.

So too for the better part of the last decade have the Republican party. Despite holding majorities in both house of Congress and the Presidency for most of the last decade, spending grew, government grabbed more power and rather than listen to the constitution and the will of the people, Bush and company rubber stamped measures that infuriated their base and the potential voters who might have supported a policy plan that reflected their views. If the GOP listens to the people in whom power remains vested, they can restore their brand, but if instead they accept bribes from lobbyists to influence policy, they will remain in the minority perpetually. Listening works.

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