If 'Marketing' Had Not Been Mistranslated as 'Yingxiao'

I have previously expressed the view that the translation of "Marketing" as "Yingxiao" (营销) is one of the greatest disasters in the history of Chinese translation, and one of the greatest disasters in the history of Chinese "marketing" and even business. It is a complete mismatch. As someone with poor English, I find the meaning of "Marketing" very clear: "Market" means market, and the suffix "ing" indicates a progressive tense. It means "everything happening in the market" or "actions directed at the market."

As a discipline, it could be called "market studies" (市场学), and as a business activity, calling it "marketization" (市场化) would also be basically accurate. But what does calling it "Yingxiao" (营销) mean? "Management + sales"? Or "managing sales"? Management? That's too vague. Which department or link in a company is not involved in management? The boss certainly is. So that leaves "sales"? That's a huge mistake, because there is clearly a function called "Sale" in the world. As a result, most companies are confused and then fall into chaos. Most people treat "Yingxiao" as a tool to assist sales growth. Some companies elevate its status, placing it above sales as a tool for coordinating and planning sales, but the ultimate goal is always the same: "sell more goods," "sell more with less money," "sell more with less work," "sell more with less thought"... Thus, the marketing department or market department becomes the "scheming advisor" for achieving maximum sales at low cost, specializing in tricks. Even if they can't turn beans into soldiers, they should at least be able to calculate and predict.

Then something even more bizarre happens. Because "Marketing" was mistranslated as "Yingxiao," it was given the attribute of a "scheming advisor," and people, while doing "Yingxiao," also avoid the term "Yingxiao" like the plague, fearing they might be struck by lightning. Duan Yongping, who famously renamed "game consoles" to "learning machines," has top-tier market insight and strategic ability, but his famous saying is "Products are the core competitiveness; marketing is just a boost." Dong Mingzhu, who became famous through "Yingxiao," started from the sales frontline and founded the famous "distribution consortium," always says that marketing is not important; what matters most to Gree is its "core technology." The "Yingxiao" mentioned by entrepreneurs is still relatively good. In the eyes of the media and the public, the reputation of "Yingxiao" is worse than twenty tons of "oligive." Self-media accounts that accept money to shamelessly promote, hype, spread rumors, lie, and maliciously attack competitors are called "Yingxiao accounts." A company that likes to brag, does a lot of advertising, or has salespeople everywhere and endless promotions is called "excessive Yingxiao." Hearing this, I always want to shout a type of plant. When it comes to "Yingxiao people," the common associations are: "glib," "hype," "high emotional intelligence," "knowing tricks," "drinking and socializing," "advertising placement," "painting pies," and even more exaggerated: "behind-the-scenes manipulation," "harvesting leeks," "power-money (sex) transactions," and so on.

Many people around me cannot understand how I, who am self-righteous, like to speak bluntly, and do not drink or socialize, have managed to work in "Yingxiao" for so many years without being beaten to death.

Internet celebrity and big V, Teacher Zhang Xuefeng, earnestly advises parents not to let their children major in marketing, saying that they will end up in sales, and do you need to study marketing to do sales? There is no threshold at all; you can do it better without a major. Zhang Xuefeng is describing the current situation, and it is a fact. But this fact is based on a huge misunderstanding of "Marketing."

As long as we take a slight look at the word "Marketing," we can see how absurd and ridiculous the above situations and statements are. As a discipline, "Marketing" refers to "the laws of development of all ongoing things in the market." As a business activity, "Marketing" refers to "the market-oriented behavior of an enterprise." How could a mature enterprise only value products and not marketization? Isn't that naked self-indulgence? Don't they know that product is a basic element of "Marketing"? It is the first P of the 4Ps. An enterprise that is keen on hype but ignores product innovation and other basic market work is clearly insufficient in "Marketing," so how is it "excessive Yingxiao"? As for those who take money to brag, hype, and spread rumors, what do they have to do with real "Marketing"? The mistranslation of Marketing as "Yingxiao" has given almost all Chinese companies a "split personality." On one hand, they loudly proclaim their "marketization," how they "pay attention to and respect users," how they "win-win with partners," and how they "meet the needs of various scenarios." On the other hand, they avoid "Yingxiao" like the plague, fearing being labeled as a "Yingxiao company" or "good at Yingxiao." This is not the fault of the companies. The "framing effect" tells us: "If the frame is wrong, everything is in vain." Calling "Marketing" "Yingxiao" is like putting thirty-year-old Moutai in a urinal and asking people to drink it. Anyone would feel disgusted. "You stamp, and you also feel numb."

If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," many startups would not have failed. Research shows that among the reasons for startup failure (multiple choice), "no market demand" leads with 42%, followed by "pricing and cost issues" at 18%, "poor product" at 17%, "poor product marketing (promotion)" at 14%, and "ignoring customers" at 14%. These are clearly Marketing problems: you have insufficient insight into the market, insufficient understanding of the value you create, and insufficient understanding of your customers. If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," many business owners facing growth difficulties would not be running around looking for traffic dividends, cooperation resources, and racking their brains to learn "marketing tricks" that turn stone into gold, only to be harvested as leeks. Instead, they would be rethinking whether they can still create real user value, whether these "values" can be recognized by users, whether they can smoothly reach users, and whether they can inspire more people to support your value. In that case, a large number of enterprises would escape involution, step on fewer pitfalls, fall into fewer traps, and carve out their own path to marketization. If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," then "Full Marketing" would not have been translated as "all-staff Yingxiao," and some enterprises would not have crazily made the whole company go out to pull orders, fantasizing that "the Chinese men's football team can win by playing 11 forwards." "Full Marketing" should be correctly translated as "comprehensive marketization." "Marketing is everywhere": the production, supply, sales, research, personnel, and finance of an enterprise should all be guided by market orientation. "The downstream is the customer of the upstream" (Mr. Zhang Ruimin's business process reengineering). If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," the "marketing department" would not be the most frustrated and high-turnover department, because the company's performance is mainly related to the overall marketization of the company, but only you are assessed on performance, making you the natural, pure, and pollution-free scapegoat. If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," there would be no so-called "marketing strategy," but only "market strategy." A true market strategy is not subordinate to the so-called "corporate strategy," but is the company's only strategy from a market-oriented perspective. If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," successful bosses sharing their experiences would not be rambling about this and that, one saying "our technology is far ahead," another saying "our product is invincible," one saying "we are sincere and kind," another saying "we stay true to our original aspiration." Because the success of the vast majority of enterprises is the success of "Marketing," because you (intentionally or unintentionally) respect market laws, respect users, and create, effectively deliver, and spread your value. If Marketing had not been translated as "Yingxiao," those majoring in "Yingxiao" would not be automatically sent to do sales. A Marketer with solid skills is a national treasure-level talent in a company, and all managers should take a professional course in Marketing.

Of course, there are not so many "ifs," although I could list many more. The important thing is that Marketing has been dragged through the mud by "Yingxiao." What should we do? First, we call on the academic community to correct the name of Marketing: "University marketing majors should be renamed 'market major' or 'market studies major,' and 'Marketing Management' should be called 'Marketization Management.'" All textbooks, academic readings, and official media should replace the original "Yingxiao" with more precise words such as "market," "marketization," and "promotion." If we go further, we should move the "market studies" major from the "management" category to the "economics" category. Because one essence of Marketing is "studying the application of behavioral economics in enterprises," and even Mr. Kotler said, "Marketing is another way of saying behavioral economics," and "Marketing's father is economics, and its mother is behavioral science." Marketing is actually the most practical and micro applied economics. Many people think that studying economics is useless because they study a crippled version, lacking the Marketing course, not understanding the specific marketization operation laws of enterprises, only studying large supply, demand, and prices, macro growth, fiscal, and monetary policies, which is "seeing only the forest, not the trees" (as Teacher Liu Chunxiong said), and the solutions they give will be unrealistic, and finally they stop speaking human language. "Academics are the root. If even the most professional and authoritative interpretation is misunderstood, then it will become more and more absurd and unreliable in enterprise application and public cognition." For business owners or practitioners, we must firmly believe in one sentence: "Everything that happens is beneficial to me." Because most people are wallowing in the mud pit of "Yingxiao," if you can jump out, from "sitting in a well and looking at the sky" of studying tricks and chasing dividends, to "sitting in the sky and looking at the well" of creating and delivering value (as Teacher Zeng Xiangwen said), then you can be the first to escape involution and enjoy the "cognitive" dividend and the "professional" dividend. Similarly, the more people who accept the true Marketing concept, the more truly valuable enterprises there will be, the better our business environment will be, and the higher our cooperation efficiency will be. Of course, most people who have been brainwashed by "Yingxiao" cannot return to true Marketing. It is too difficult to completely change a person's thinking, almost impossible. Planck's law tells us that good advice is hard to persuade the damned. "A scientific truth is accepted by the public not because opponents see the light of truth and change, but because they are eventually eliminated and leave, and a new generation that is familiar with and accepts it grows up." From this perspective, accepting and promoting the true "Marketing" now is the business enlightenment of this era, truly immeasurable merit. Amitabha.

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