Marketing requires elite input and mass output Are masters found among the people? How big is the gap between professionals and amateur experts? Han Han wrote an article titled "The Night I Wanted to Beat Pan Xiaoting, I Kept Breaking" in which he gave several examples to prove the chasm between professional and amateur levels. In short, don't compare your hobby with someone's livelihood. In some fields, even entry-level professionals can easily beat folk masters. Han Han's article is insightful and, as always, interesting. But the examples are all in competitive sports, which doesn't quite quench the thirst. As an adult, except for a few who never use their brains, most have at least a basic understanding of competitive sports. Even if the national football team plays poorly, few think they could score if they were on the field; Even though we are all Bruce Lee fans, few think he could beat Tyson; Even if a provincial women's table tennis player used her left hand against a male amateur expert, she would still be more than capable. Dozens of guerrillas taking out hundreds of Japanese regulars, a sweeper monk effortlessly defeating all the masters, Tyson being beaten by a street fighter in prison—these plots are thrilling, popular with the public, and fit people's fantasies, but they can only be imagined in literature or entertainment. As the saying goes, "In literature, there is no first; in martial arts, there is no second." "Martial arts" has standards: stand and win, fall and lose. If you say Tai Chi is awesome, or MMA is powerful, just fight it out. This is characteristic of all competitive sports. But many professions have no standards or vague standards, so the gap between professional and amateur is not so clear-cut. Legend has it that when a Mongol diplomat was subjected to the "beard-cutting insult" by the Khwarazmian Empire, Genghis Khan flew into a rage and ordered his scribe to write a declaration of war. When it was presented, it was long-winded. The more Genghis Khan read, the angrier he became. He beat the scribe dozens of lashes and scolded, "Why so wordy with this dog king? Listen, I'll tell you what to write." Then, facing the tens of thousands of iron cavalry outside the tent, Genghis Khan roared, "If you want war, then war it is." Thus was born the shortest declaration of war in history, six characters long. This anecdote is widely circulated, and many take it as historical fact, but it's actually a story from Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," used to highlight Genghis Khan's dominance and subtly mock pedantic literati. This is an obvious bug. Not to mention whether Genghis Khan could master Chinese, the story is too far-fetched because there are no clear standards. What makes a good declaration of war is somewhat vague, or even determined by the leader. As a professional scribe, one wouldn't dare to write "If you want war, then war it is" on a whim, because the leader might prefer Chen Lin's "Declaration Against Cao Cao" or Luo Binwang's "Declaration Against Wu Zetian on Behalf of Li Jingye," which would scare the enemy into a cold sweat. If "concise and direct" were the standard, Genghis Khan's "If you want war, then war it is" is clearly better than the scribe's long declaration, but it's still quite wordy, with a hint of "What are you looking at?" "Looking at you, so what?" which is rather comical. Without the context of Genghis Khan's character, it wouldn't be considered imposing at all. It could be shortened to "War if you will" or even just one word—"War." What matters is that the standard is in the leader's hands. The leader has the power of judgment and also plays in the game, which is why in the matter of writing declarations, the "professional" scribe was inferior to Genghis Khan, was trampled and humiliated, and got a whipping. Unfortunately, in our field, marketing is an industry that lacks standards. In 2005, Lao Miao, representing his company Yake Foods, went to receive the "Outstanding Marketing Award" and gave an acceptance speech that still makes him blush to this day. I brazenly said: "Local enterprises are still backward, so we must strive to catch up. If it were high-tech products, building planes or aircraft carriers, it's understandable that we lag behind international companies. But when it comes to making a small candy with little technology, if we still can't beat foreign brands, then all of us in the candy business should go jump off a building." The applause was warm, but the slap in the face was also painful. Over the years, our local enterprises that compete in technology and production have made great strides, many already leading internationally: Our aircraft carriers are launched, large aircraft are in service, high-speed rail sweeps the globe, and mobile payments amaze foreigners. In the Chinese market that Jobs looked down on, Huawei's market share has surpassed iPhone's. In production, we not only "copy" in a way that gives international brands headaches, but we also lead in cost control and efficiency: we can have multiple factories collaborate to produce a one-yuan lighter, and some small appliances can be sold at retail prices lower than foreign production costs. But it is precisely in industries with little technology or where competitiveness cannot be built by reducing production costs, industries that need marketing to create differentiation and brands to drive growth, that we have failed repeatedly and miserably: Luxury goods, clothing, diapers, cosmetics, daily chemicals, and in food: milk powder, infant food, candy, biscuits, puffed snacks—basically crushed. Local beverage companies have bright spots like Wahaha, Nongfu, and JDB, but they are also long suppressed by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Red Bull, and Master Kong. Only in industries with regional protection or cultural barriers, like tobacco, alcohol, tea, and dairy, do local enterprises hold a solid leading position. Isn't this counterintuitive? Uncle Deng said, "Science and technology are the primary productive forces." Isn't our underdevelopment due to "backward science," "backward technology," or "backward production"? The backwardness of most of our industries is due to backward marketing, or more precisely, "amateur marketing." Unlike most competitive sports, the barrier to entry in marketing is incredibly low. Any profession requires some special talent: an old friend of mine, a former sprinter in his youth, ran 100 meters in under 11 seconds and placed nationally. Now he eats and drinks recklessly, has various bad habits, but he's still in great shape and energetic. He's thin with long legs. That's what they call "God's gift." But people in marketing rarely think about this. From what Lao Miao knows, there are mainly two types of people who enter marketing. One type is those who didn't study well, found they had no skills when entering society, so they went into sales—anyone with a mouth can do it. Some keep doing it for ten or twenty years, and now face elimination or transition to marketing. Lao Miao belongs to this type. The other type is those who, due to youthful ignorance, think marketers are glamorous, that marketing battles are exciting and fulfilling, and are lured onto this path of no return. A brother of mine, a top graduate from a prestigious university, went to the technical department of Master Kong after graduation. By chance, he heard a report from the planning department and thought it was amazing, so he switched from technology to sales. Then he heard Lao Miao give a lecture and thought, "Wow! This is a real expert. I'll follow him from now on." He's been with me for nine years and still gets scolded often. That's "meeting Lao Miao ruins your life." In summary: either you have no skills, or you're momentarily confused. Few people consider whether they are suited for marketing, what knowledge and skills are needed, and among the many subfields, which one fits them best. Because there's no threshold, there's often no standard, and that's the most heart-wrenching part for marketers. In a company, other departments can't make suggestions to R&D, production, or finance; at most, they can make requests. But any department or person can comment on a "marketing plan," a promotional plan, or a slogan; anyone can comment in the name of "being a consumer." Many people have their own opinions on product packaging, waving their hands like art directors, thinking they're only one software program away from professional designers. Others think "marketing is just selling things," and if you sell, you're great; if you don't, you're an idiot. This is the most common amateur mindset. Under this twisted logic, hiring Kotler is less useful than winning over an official or key person with resources, or even finding a pretty woman to "lobby" with. "Fine wine," "beauty," "money," and "favors"—the four treasures of salespeople—only work in the selling stage. The purpose of marketing is precisely to make all this unnecessary. The lower the threshold, the deeper the water. A marketing expert needs to master many things. First, marketing is the study of influencing consumer behavior. In Master Ye's words, it's "the art of persuading people to divorce." So the foundation of marketing is behavioral science. Influencing behavior must be done in a market economy; you can't force people to buy with a knife. So the external ecological logic of marketing is economic logic. Second, marketing is the act of integrating corporate and social resources to achieve marketing goals. A copy of Kotler's "Marketing Management," a 600-page tome, must be studied. It details over twenty marketing elements within the 4P framework and common marketing tools. This is just the basic entry level. Marketing has many sub-disciplines. Brand management, strategic management, channel management, advertising, and communication all require relevant professional knowledge, plus economics and financial knowledge. If you're a third-party agency, you need even more consulting-related expertise. Further, marketing has many job functions, such as product manager, brand manager, channel manager, promotion, media, copywriter, designer, researcher, etc., each requiring specific professional skills. A few days ago, a young man in our company said a golden phrase that Lao Miao praised for a long time. He said: "Marketing requires elite input and mass output." "You see Gao Xiaosong rambling on shows, talking about customs, gossip, and scandals, but you don't know that he was reading the 'Book of the Later Han' in junior high." "You see Mi Meng's chicken soup and scolding-like outspokenness, but you might overlook that she has a master's degree in literature from a prestigious university and was a best-selling author long ago." This input-output cannot be reversed. If you input chicken soup, gossip, and trivial anecdotes, it won't help your high-quality output, except for a momentary pleasure. Chairman Mao input the Twenty-Four Histories, Marxism-Leninism, and various books from Peking University Library to output "Beat the local tyrants and divide the land" and "Party building, armed struggle, and the united front are the three magic weapons for revolutionary victory." If you input "Beat the local tyrants and divide the land," you'll only be left to pick up a hoe and follow behind. Marketing is a discipline that pursues more efficient value creation and exchange. The amateur disease in the domestic marketing industry manifests in two ways: one is using "wine, sex, wealth, and favors" to bribe key links, mistaking it for marketing and feeling smug; the other is mistaking marketing's mass output for marketing expertise, pointing fingers at marketing as a "consumer" or with some experience, but knowing nothing about the power of professionalism. It's said there are 80 million marketers in China. From the thousand-plus samples Lao Miao has encountered, not to mention true professionals, those with professional awareness are less than 10%. How many enterprises are there in China? The national industrial and commercial registration data shows over 70 million, including large, medium, small, and micro enterprises of various operating statuses. The gap for professional marketing personnel is almost infinitely large. To become professional, marketers need not only solid professional knowledge but also a lot of deliberate practice. If you ask Ogilvy how to become a professional advertiser, he might only give you two pieces of advice: read "Scientific Advertising" seven times, and practice endlessly. The same applies to other functions in the marketing field. Source: Lao Miao Tears Marketing (ID: yiheyingxiao) -END-