---
title: "Essential Reading List for Learning Marketing: How Many Have You Read?"
description: "Frequently, friends in marketing ask on our official account what books and websites they should consult to systematically learn marketing. Today, we recommend an article by Zhihu user Bo Xun, which we believe will help marketing professionals systematically build their knowledge framework. Let's start with the first book."
author: "波旬"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-08-06"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/essential-reading-list-for-learning-marketing-how-many-have-you-read-296094bf/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/essential-reading-list-for-learning-marketing-how-many-have-you-read-296094bf.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TT1aaOSYAhoq-S6ywAyjpg"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%AD%A6%E4%B9%A0%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E7%9A%84%E5%BF%85%E8%AF%BB%E4%B9%A6%E5%8D%95-%E4%BD%A0%E7%9C%8B%E8%BF%87%E5%87%A0%E6%9C%AC-296094bf.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/essential-reading-list-for-learning-marketing-how-many-have-you-read-296094bf/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Essential Reading List for Learning Marketing: How Many Have You Read?

> Frequently, friends in marketing ask on our official account what books and websites they should consult to systematically learn marketing. Today, we recommend an article by Zhihu user Bo Xun, which we believe will help marketing professionals systematically build their knowledge framework. Let's start with the first book.

Frequently, friends in marketing ask on our official account what books and websites they should consult to systematically learn marketing. Today, we recommend an article by Zhihu user Bo Xun, which we believe will help marketing professionals systematically build their knowledge framework.
Let's start with the first book.
1. Principles of Marketing
Kotler's version, 13th or 14th edition, either Chinese or English.
This book is crucial to your entire marketing thinking system. If you can buy a physical book, never download an e-book. The author's fallacy that "brand is product" also stems from the Nth re-reading; this book can be considered the fundamental method of marketing and brand building.
You might question why we don't first recommend Kotler's Marketing Management. The author has followed Management from the 4th to the 14th edition. While the marketing part is classic, the management part, for domestic enterprises, more or less has the suspicion of "using the method of managing camels to manage rabbits." Hence, we recommend the clean and pure Principles as an introductory book for marketing and branding.
Additionally, we recommend several "plugins" for this book:
> ####
>
> A. For complete newcomers inside and outside
>
> The Business of Business
If you feel completely uninterested in what business is and don't understand the significance of marketing and branding for enterprises, you can supplement your reading with Sasha Galbraith's The Business of Business to build a holistic view.
> ####
>
> B. For newcomers inside
>
> Kotler Says, Marketing Management, Positioning
If you encounter obstacles during reading, you can also refer to Kotler Says, a tips manual for Principles. You can also repeatedly compare the thinking frameworks of Principles and Management, or compare STP in Principles with positioning in Positioning to seek knowledge.
> ####
>
> C. For veterans who are not new inside or outside
>
> Peter Fisk's "Genius Trilogy": Business Genius, Customer Genius, Marketing Genius.
The names are domineering, and the content is even more imaginative. If you are a newcomer who doesn't follow the beaten path, or a veteran tired of traditional marketing thinking frameworks, you can completely replace Principles of Marketing with this series.
> ####
>
> D. For marketing majors who consider themselves not new inside or outside
>
> (Don't look around; maybe it's you)
>
> The Red Book of Marketing
Many marketing majors think they have learned and mastered marketing. Truth hurts! What you have learned is always "foreign marketing." Even if you didn't study marketing abroad, most domestic marketing textbook authors are engaged in translating or pseudo-original foreign textbooks for fame and profit; in any case, they haven't truly grounded themselves in local marketing practice.
Truth hurts hurts! What you have learned is always "foreign marketing of the past." Not to mention the outdated textbooks you studied in China, even if you studied marketing abroad.
Do you know:
What is Inbound Marketing?
What is MLM, what is Loyalty Marketing?
What is Viral Marketing?
What is Social Influence Marketing?
What is Experiential Marketing?
What is Agile Marketing?
What is Attraction Marketing?
What is Article Marketing?
What is Content Marketing?
What is Quantitative Marketing?
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
What is Permission Marketing?
Marketing practice is changing with each passing day; theory can never keep up with its pace.
Truth hurts hurts hurts!
The truth is that you spend time, effort, and money on education, but what you learn might be the nutrient-poor stuff after others have skimmed the cream!
Samuelson's fallacy of composition says: one farmer's bumper harvest is a harvest; many farmers' bumper harvests are abundant production but not a good harvest! Think about how many people study the same textbooks as you, and think about the industry's unspoken rule that "marketing majors can't do marketing well." Can you still rest easy?
**To win in marketing competition, you have three strategies:**
  * Overall cost leadership (learn a huge amount of theory, practice a huge amount)
  * Differentiation (read what others haven't read, do what others haven't done)
  * Focus (read only one aspect of books, do only one aspect of things)
The Red Book of Marketing can be said to be the Chinese version of Principles of Marketing. We dare to elevate it to this level in our recommendation because it is cost-leading in "marketing theory," differentiated in "Chinese localization," and focused on "Chinese-style marketing practice." Its guiding significance for shaping Chinese local brands is naturally extraordinary.
If you still have more appetite, you can continue reading the fifth recommendation.
> ####
>
> E. For entrepreneurs who don't have much time to learn marketing
>
> The Pain of Enterprise Growth
I really haven't figured out how to write this subtitle, so let's call it that for now...
Peter Drucker said: A company has only two basic functions: innovation and marketing.
If you are an entrepreneur or a manager of a startup, grasping innovation with one hand and marketing with the other, both must be strong, and your outcome won't be too bad.
Use Eric's The Pain of Enterprise Growth to solve innovation problems, and Principles of Marketing to solve marketing problems. Combining marketing and innovation to build a brand is more than enough; perhaps other books are just excess information for you who are busy with a thousand things.
> ####
>
> F. For those who don't want to master marketing through "learning" at all
>
> Simon Sinek's Start with Why
No way, there are such people...
No way, the title sounds really lame...
Did Steve Jobs "learn" marketing? Or, did Steve Jobs need to "learn" marketing?
Manipulation is not as good as inspiration; marketing is not as good as not marketing but self-selling. If Jobs "learned" and mastered marketing, "Apple" would only have become "Apple Computer" or "Apple Phone."
The key reason for recommending this book is the crystallization of a thought collision: "After abandoning the distractions of advertising, PR, brand communication, and marketing, operations is a huge idealized unit, and in fact, we don't consider that much. All my happiness comes from making others feel happy, whether it's exchanging views, answering questions, or sharing knowledge. I hope my words can help those in need, sharing a little more views, on this side or that side."
Marketing can be this simple; marketing should have been this simple.
2. Positioning
By Ries and Trout
To understand and build a brand, you can skip this book but you must understand positioning.
3. Integrated Marketing Communications
By Don Schultz
It's an ancient book; the operational methods are outdated, but the thinking mode and framework are forever classic. Whether you do advertising, PR, market promotion, or brand planning, what you do is integrated marketing communications.
4. The Perfect Marketing Guide for Small and Medium Enterprises
A unique gem in integrated marketing communications.
The culmination of the guerrilla marketing system. Use low-cost methods to achieve high dissemination, thereby building the brand. For example, Zhihu's invitation code strategy is also classified as hunger marketing in the guerrilla marketing system. Related books include Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing. The Guide emphasizes practical operation, while Guerrilla emphasizes theoretical framework; it depends on personal preference.
5. Chinese-style Marketing
By Liu Chunxiong and Jin Huanmin
6. Chinese-style Marketing
By Zhan Zhifang and Xue Jinfu
## Sales Trilogy: Sales is King, Sustained Growth, Let Growth Change Destiny
## Chinese-style Management (by Zeng Shiqiang)
If you are sure you are building a brand in "China" (not abroad), if you are sure you are "building" a brand in China (not fooling around), if you are sure you are building a "brand" in China (not other specious activities under the name of marketing or branding), being grounded is very important.
The author has purchased and studied all available versions of Chinese-style Marketing on the market; many are just crafts of copying and pasting. Only the above two versions of Chinese-style Marketing have true insights, telling you the whole picture of Chinese-style marketing with theory and practice combined, helping you be grounded, and helping your brand be grounded.
Another more effective way to be grounded is to start as a sales representative.
After you have served as a grassroots sales representative and supervisor, regional sales manager, and national sales manager, you are not only grounded; the ground has even become a force you can use with ease. Of course, even if you are a genius, the above steps require at least 5 years to complete. A quick way is to read the Sales is King, Sustained Growth, Let Growth Change Destiny series. The method of "sales is brand" is slightly extreme; Liu Chunxiong also mentioned it in a conversation, but seeing brand as the result of sales is far higher than most marketers' approach of brand for brand's sake.
Chinese-style Management talks less about management but systematically, and more about human nature but comprehensively. It can serve as auxiliary material for understanding Chinese human nature. As mentioned above, brand satisfies desires, and desires originate from human nature. To build a brand in China, you deserve to understand Chinese-style human nature.
Source: Buma Marketing People
**Editor's PS:** The editor has selected 1067 featured articles from nearly 1900 articles published on this official account, divided them into 14 categories and 57 knowledge points, and systematically made frontline marketing management content into a library for everyone's learning. From market to customers, talking about actual combat and management, all are dry goods. After following the official account, reply with the number "1" to browse and view related content.


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671