---
title: "To Excel at Marketing, Look Beyond It"
description: "The author argues that true marketing expertise comes from studying areas beyond marketing itself, such as industry dynamics, psychology, management, strategy, and logic. He emphasizes that industry attributes determine the ultimate competitive landscape, and that understanding these external factors is crucial for long-term success."
author: "刘春雄"
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published: "2017-07-03"
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# To Excel at Marketing, Look Beyond It

> The author argues that true marketing expertise comes from studying areas beyond marketing itself, such as industry dynamics, psychology, management, strategy, and logic. He emphasizes that industry attributes determine the ultimate competitive landscape, and that understanding these external factors is crucial for long-term success.

Author|Liu Chunxiong
Source|Teacher Liu's Forum (ID: liuchunxiong1964)

I have always emphasized that the real skill in marketing lies **outside** marketing itself. Just as with poetry, the true craft is beyond the poem.
Simply studying marketing often makes it hard to master marketing.
Some call me a marketing expert, but my bookshelf actually holds few marketing books, and I rarely read marketing literature. My public account articles are not mostly about marketing. I know that marketing articles get high click-through rates, but I genuinely don't spend much time thinking about marketing issues. The content of my public account articles reflects the questions I ponder in daily life.

1. Marketing is a kaleidoscope of tactics
Marketing is both simple and complex, like chess or Go: the rules are not complicated, but the variations are endless.
Everyone knows the marketing '4Ps', but that's actually the simplest summary. Marketing has over 20 elements, later condensed into 4Ps by an American expert (not Kotler, by the way). Under each 'P' there are multiple 'sub-elements', totaling more than 20.
The 4Ps are strategic marketing; later Kotler proposed tactical marketing, which was a stretch—an extension of marketing by force.
Tactical marketing is essentially about tactics. But with over 20 elements constantly combining, there are countless tactics. **Many marketing students treat the 4Ps as static, failing to adapt flexibly.** Once they find a tactic that works, they stick with it, never grasping the essence.
**Because marketing is a competitive field, your tactics depend on your competitors.** Some say just focus on consumers, not competitors. That's a 'pretentious' idea; professors can say it, but marketers cannot.
In battle, if you only follow your own playbook, you're engaging in 'asymmetric' warfare—either exceptionally strong or exceptionally weak.
So, what should you study beyond marketing to excel at it? I suggest the following areas: **industry research, psychology, management, strategy, and logic**.

2. Industry attributes determine marketing evolution
I once said: **'Look at China from the world's perspective, look at the industry from China's perspective, and look at the enterprise from the industry's perspective.'**
Stand high to see far. How high? Study a problem from outside that problem.
To study marketing, stand from the enterprise's viewpoint. To study the enterprise, stand from the industry's viewpoint.
I wrote a book, *Let Growth Change Destiny*. Marketing expert Shi Xianlong commented: this is the first book that studies marketing from an industry perspective. I feel Shi Xianlong is a kindred spirit who truly understood.
A friend from the marketing world came to see me, and my first question was: 'What are the industry attributes of your industry?' That stumped him. He had been in marketing for over a decade but never considered the industry's attributes—that's failing to step outside.
**'Industry attributes' determine the industry's evolution patterns.** For example, suppose a company plans to become one of the top three in its industry, and it achieves that, but then dies. Because only two companies survive in that industry in the end—this is 'growth not changing destiny', determined by industry attributes.
Some industries are naturally oligopolistic, others naturally fragmented (like baijiu, tea, condiments, snacks). **Industry attributes determine the industry's 'ultimate landscape', which in turn determines marketing goals and direction.** If you don't understand these, diving headfirst into marketing might bring rapid growth, but you'll still die eventually. If marketing can't change destiny, what's the point?

3. Rational irrationality, irrational rationality
Some say marketing's father is management, and its mother is psychology.
Marketing targets people; even in B2B marketing, the target is still people. As long as it's people, psychology is involved.
When I was a graduate student, I inexplicably self-studied various branches of psychology, like social psychology, management psychology, and consumer psychology. Later, when people asked me to recommend psychology books, I said just pick any one, because that's what I did.
**What does psychology study? I think it's the 'irrational' within the rational, and the 'rational' within the irrational.**
Because of rationality, there are patterns to explore. Even irrationality, when examined deeply, still has patterns.
As long as there are patterns, they are easy to grasp and use.
I once said: marketing psychology is making consumers feel they've gained even after spending money. The so-called **'win-win'** is actually: the manufacturer wins money, and the consumer wins psychologically.

4. Without strategy, you can't convince the boss
Many say the boss doesn't understand the market, but do you understand the boss?
Every boss has a strategy. Some say our boss has no strategy. That's a misunderstanding of strategy.
Strategy isn't a set of tools, models, or knowledge; it's naturally determined by 'position'. Standing in the boss's shoes, there is always a strategy. Those who say the boss has no strategy are wrong.
It's just that most bosses' strategies are beyond your comprehension. Some bosses don't see far enough, but that doesn't mean they lack strategy—their vision is just limited. Some bosses have modest ambitions, but that's self-awareness, because their abilities can't support grander ideals.
**Strategy is determined by vision, capability, and resources.** When we think the boss has no strategy, it usually means your vision and capability exceed the boss's, and the boss's strategy isn't as grand or long-term as yours, but you can't say the boss has no strategy.
My experience is: to convince the boss, don't start from a marketing angle; first approach from a strategic angle the boss can understand, then talk marketing.

5. The father of marketing is management
Marketing thought originated in management, especially Drucker.
Marketing has few thinkers. Marketing has never been a 'prominent discipline'; management and economics are. Teachers like Bao Zheng say they study management and occasionally dabble in marketing.
The history of management is essentially the history of management thinkers. **'With thought, there is soul.'** In the U.S., Drucker isn't considered a management scholar by academics; they call him a thinker.
Management's importance to marketing is also evident in a persistent Chinese phenomenon: success through marketing, failure through management. Marketing without management support won't last long.
Starbucks' founder said: **'Score in the front, win in the back.'** This is remarkably similar to the Chinese saying.

6. There's always logic behind marketing
Many focus on marketing creativity, but I focus more on the 'logic' behind it.
No matter how surprising the creativity or planning, there's always logical support. Even 'flashes of inspiration' must find a logical explanation.
Go masters can see 20 moves ahead; ordinary players might see only a few. That's the gap. Marketing is the same: **the length of your 'logic chain' determines how big and complex you can go.**
The bigger and more complex, the more you need to think clearly. **First, 'structuring ability'—organizing complex issues; second, 'logic chain length'.** With a short logic chain, you can only handle simple problems.
Marketing problems often have complex logical analysis but simple conclusions. The worst is simple logic with complex conclusions.
**The most important logical abilities: first, induction; second, deduction.** If you've worked for a while, there's always 'best practice'—it's about whether you can induce. As long as there's a pattern, you can deduce many effective methods.
**The third logical ability is conceptualization.** The simplest concept is moving from method to methodology.
To master logical ability, you don't necessarily need to study logic—it can be dull. Work with someone strong in logic, do a few practical analyses, and if you're perceptive, you'll pick it up quickly.
After writing all this, will it scare marketers? Actually, it's not just marketing; it's the same for other endeavors. To understand, you must go in. To fully understand, you must step out.

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