---
title: "No Harm, No Trade: Come On, Keep the Harm Coming"
description: "The article discusses how 'unfavorable comparisons' and self-conflict drive market dynamics, revealing that the true 'soul of marketing' lies in creating and resolving conflicts. It explores four types of internal contradictions that marketers exploit to stimulate consumption."
author: "苗庆显"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2017-05-18"
categories: "Brand Marketing"
language: "en"
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citation: "苗庆显. “No Harm, No Trade: Come On, Keep the Harm Coming.” New Distribution, 2017-05-18. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/no-harm-no-trade-come-on-keep-the-harm-coming-b680b188/"
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---

# No Harm, No Trade: Come On, Keep the Harm Coming

> The article discusses how 'unfavorable comparisons' and self-conflict drive market dynamics, revealing that the true 'soul of marketing' lies in creating and resolving conflicts. It explores four types of internal contradictions that marketers exploit to stimulate consumption.

Introduction
"Unfavorable comparison" is sometimes a form of self-torment;
Competing with oneself can generate powerful market momentum;
The article concludes by revealing what truly constitutes the "soul of marketing."
People are often contradictory, liking to make things difficult for themselves.
A friend said that when someone posts multiple photos on social media, if the number isn't a multiple of three, he feels particularly upset and wishes he could add one more. That's the power of a sense of imperfection.
People easily develop a sense of imperfection, and competition and comparison with the outside world are significant sources, as is self-competition.

**1**
**The first type of contradiction arises between habitual mechanisms and desires.**
Harvard economist James Duesenberry argued that consumer choices are not the result of rational planning but of learning and habit formation.
Increasing consumption and increasing savings are contradictory, and in handling this contradiction, people form certain **habitual mechanisms**. These mechanisms provide a "**defensive wall**" against desires for higher-tier products. If the "defensive wall" is strong enough, people can resist the temptation of new products and maintain a relatively balanced life of consumption and savings.
However, marketers often do exactly this: **destroy the "defensive wall"**.
Once a more advanced product appears than what consumers currently use, they tend to replace the existing product with the latter. But if they replace an advanced product with an inferior one, they feel pain.
Sima Guang said, "**It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but hard to go from extravagance to frugality**," which captures this idea. Contact with more advanced products threatens consumers' existing consumption patterns because it activates their latent preferences for these products. Duesenberry called this process of changing habits and desires through exposure to advanced products the "**demonstration effect**."
> _Zhang San likes drinking tea. He discovers a new shop with good tea leaves and a particularly nice owner. Zhang San buys tea at 30 yuan per liang and takes it home. The owner gives him a small packet of tea at 35 yuan per liang to taste. Zhang San is very satisfied and frequently buys tea from this shop. Each time, the owner gives him a small packet of tea slightly more expensive than what Zhang San bought. Two years later, Zhang San's tea expenditure has tripled._

**2**
**The second type of contradiction comes from the "label effect."**
**It is difficult, even impossible, for people to truly know themselves, but we don't want to be confused, so we often need labels to position ourselves.**
These labels may come from habitual self-perception, external evaluations, social status, cultural heritage, or from the goods we consume and use.
An allusion from *Han Feizi*: "**In ancient times, when Zhou made ivory chopsticks, Ji Zi was alarmed.**"
When King Zhou of Shang first ascended the throne, he had not yet shown debauchery or cruelty. Once, during a meal, he showed off his new ivory chopsticks, which frightened his uncle Ji Zi:
If you use ivory chopsticks, you won't use earthenware bowls for food but jade vessels; with jade vessels, you can't eat simple meals but must have rich delicacies and fine wines; then you can't wear coarse clothes or live in simple houses but must wear brocade and live in grand towers. The Shang dynasty is doomed!
A girl carrying an LV bag often no longer wants to take the bus; even if she is willing, the bag might be suspected of being fake.
This is the labeling effect that material goods bring to people.
> _Anything can become a status symbol, a personal label, a symbol for consumers to express their social standing._
>
> _
> _
>
> _These days, white-collar workers have their standard gear, and the wealthy have their attire: watches are not just for telling time, cars are not just for transportation, phones are not just for communication, and houses are not just for living. Eating fried dough sticks and soy milk for breakfast is traditional, while bread and milk is modern; drinking imported mineral water can even showcase one's taste._

**3**
**The third type of contradiction is quite interesting; it comes from childhood fantasies.**
Psychologists tell us that infants are in a state of omnipotent narcissism: they believe they are the center of the universe and omnipotent. Therefore, during growth, they develop various systematic and stable fantasies.
Some fantasize about having superpowers, saving the Earth during alien invasions, and achieving world peace.
Some fantasize about being martial arts heroes, roaming the world and fighting injustice.
Some fantasize about being the child of a mysterious noble family, abandoned among commoners, and one day their biological parents will come in grand style to take them home, dazzling their peers.
Girls like to fantasize about being the heroine of a romantic drama, with male leads one, two, and three all expressing admiration for them.
...
**Once people mature, they no longer engage in such fantasies, but these fantasies do not disappear; they hide in a corner of the brain, sealed away, and the craving for them still exists.**
**Artists can evoke them through works, and marketers through products.**
Various Hollywood blockbusters, Jin Yong's martial arts novels, Qiong Yao's dramas, time-travel dramas, fantasy novels, and Mary Sue stories, though they may not seem highbrow, fully satisfy people's fantasies and narcissism, so they are widely accepted.
Role-playing games are the products that best satisfy people's fantasies, so some become obsessed and unable to extricate themselves. Yang Yongxin's electric shocks, besides harming people, have little effect.
When I was a child, I listened to Three Kingdoms storytelling on the radio and often fantasized about being an enhanced version of Zhuge Liang, knowing 500 years of the past and 500 years of the future. A wise emperor would invite me to serve, and I would coyly refuse. Later, when the world fell into chaos, I would finally emerge to save the people, and instantly the world would become clear and unified, and humanity would enter communism. Then I would drift away, retire to the mountains, and hide my fame and achievements.
Now, in middle age, I no longer dream of being Zhuge Liang, but I have taken up the role of a matchmaker, helping the wealthy (enterprises) seduce Pan Jinlian (consumers).
Even so, topics related to the Three Kingdoms and Zhuge Liang always capture my interest. The only game I, who rarely plays games, have ever been addicted to is the *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* series.
Now Cosplay has developed into an industry, and the maturity of VR technology allows various fantasies to be virtually realized to the maximum, creating more market opportunities and industry trends.

**4**
**Contradiction four: Plump ideals vs. skinny reality, perfect plans and goals vs. unsatisfactory progress and current state.**
Everyone has wanted to roam the world with a sword, but few achieve it, either because they are too fat, have too much homework, or their boss doesn't approve.
I once mentioned the **fundamental attribution error**: we overestimate our own abilities and underestimate the power of the environment. We always overestimate what we can achieve in one or two years and underestimate the changes that ten years of persistence can bring.
**Overestimating what can be done in one or two years leads us to set goals that are hard to achieve; underestimating the changes from ten years of accumulation leads us to give up easily.**
So, life is disappointing eight or nine times out of ten. I won't discuss life philosophy with readers; let's talk about the marketing implications.
The childhood ideals of the 60s and 70s generations were scientists and pilots, while the ideals of the 00s are entrepreneurs, officials, and celebrities. Is it because our brains are different from those of young people? No! Ideals are also marketed.
With "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," entrepreneurs suddenly stand at the top of the food chain. Young people in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou who are still working for others feel embarrassed to greet people, and even high-end foreign enterprise white-collar workers are no longer in demand.
"Dreams are still necessary; what if they come true?" **Society and marketers, on one hand, encourage people to have higher ideals, and on the other hand, produce a large number of products to alleviate the anxiety of unfulfilled ideals and unachieved plans.**
Snack foods, entertainment products, and cultural tourism all play the card of relaxing people's minds and bodies, making people anxious on one hand and encouraging them to eat, buy, and have fun on the other. This is how the market grows bigger and bigger.

**5**
Materialist dialectics tells us: **contradiction is the source and driving force of the development of all things.**
The market is the same. Market contradictions exist **between people and the environment, within human nature, between emotions and rationality, between instinct and thought. The greater the contradiction, the greater the market momentum.**
**Marketing is about discovering and resolving these contradictions. Contradictions always exist; when old ones are resolved, new ones are born. The market develops in the unity of opposites, in the birth and resolution of contradictions.** Ye Maozhong calls this "**conflict**," which is the "**soul of marketing**."
Master Ye added: **Third-rate marketing discovers conflicts, second-rate marketing resolves conflicts, and first-rate marketing creates conflicts.**
-END-


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 苗庆显
- Published: 2017-05-18
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/no-harm-no-trade-come-on-keep-the-harm-coming-b680b188/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7bYcAWxm39NdAzCv48rA7g

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