---
title: "Traditional Marketers Are Queuing Up to Take Their Final Bow"
description: "The author, Liu Chunxiong, argues that traditional marketers—including experts, consultants, executives, and distributors—are being phased out by the shift from industrial to information civilization. He contends that their methods are failing, and only those who can integrate traditional and internet marketing will survive."
author: "刘春雄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2017-06-08"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/traditional-marketers-are-queuing-up-to-take-their-final-bow-dceaaa6d/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/traditional-marketers-are-queuing-up-to-take-their-final-bow-dceaaa6d.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/M56i8X4ZlBDvy0z-BxM51A"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%BC%A0%E7%BB%9F%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E4%BA%BA-%E6%AD%A3%E5%9C%A8%E6%8E%92%E9%98%9F%E8%B0%A2%E5%B9%95-dceaaa6d.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/traditional-marketers-are-queuing-up-to-take-their-final-bow-dceaaa6d/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Traditional Marketers Are Queuing Up to Take Their Final Bow

> The author, Liu Chunxiong, argues that traditional marketers—including experts, consultants, executives, and distributors—are being phased out by the shift from industrial to information civilization. He contends that their methods are failing, and only those who can integrate traditional and internet marketing will survive.

Author | Liu Chunxiong
Source | Teacher Liu's Forum (ID: liuchunxiong1964)
I'm referring to marketers.
These include marketing experts, marketing consulting firms, marketing executives, ordinary marketing personnel, and distributors.
That generation refers to people born in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, and also includes some born in the 1980s.
Of course, I am among them. In fact, I took my final bow in 2012. In 2014, I announced my withdrawal from traditional marketing and stopped taking on projects. Actually, there were no projects to take on anyway; exiting voluntarily is more dignified than being forced out. As some say, only a graceful exit reveals true character.
This has nothing to do with the achievements, intelligence, or knowledge of that generation; it is only about the times.
Some companies have already replaced their marketing teams with "young Turks" due to performance issues, but who can say that the "young Turks" are not traditional marketers themselves?
01
How can a marketer prove their value? They must do something valuable for the company.
**How to prove value? Hard indicators are sales and profits; soft indicators include transformation.**
In terms of hard indicators, almost no one can do anything. When the total market is capped, can you overcome the overall trend? You can't say that because of my value, our company's decline is slower than others; I don't even agree with that statement.
**However, structural adjustment and improving profits are areas with great potential, but following traditional methods to upgrade products and distribute them has almost always failed.** The "mainstream gear shift" that Teacher Shi Xianlong and I had high hopes for is the same; now we can only hope for the "rise of new fringes."
In terms of soft indicators, the transformation to the internet is almost a different world for traditional marketers. A friend said that now those in traditional business don't understand the internet, and those in the internet don't understand traditional business. It's completely like a dialogue of the deaf.
At least for now, few marketers can show performance that proves their ability.
02
Teacher Jin Huanmin has always lamented that his disciples have been "beaten back to their original form." In fact, Teacher Jin and I are no different.
Even someone as popular as Chen Chunhua—I've carefully read her series of articles—although she incorporates elements of the times, her core is still very traditional. Teacher Chen spent three years at New Hope; although sales declined, she aimed for transformation. Whether the transformation will succeed remains to be seen.
A doctor who cannot cure a patient's illness should not accept patients. A consultant who cannot solve a company's problems should not serve others.
I truly admire those doctors who dare to treat any patient, and those experts who dare to save any company, regardless of whether they can actually save them.
In the past two years, a group of marketing experts have been trying to save themselves because manufacturers no longer trust them. Now it seems that commission-based consulting services and incremental services through investment promotion are also difficult to sustain.
Some marketers cling to traditional methods, saying it's not a problem of method but of execution. I believe that if execution is in place, things might improve a bit, but it won't fundamentally turn around.
Perhaps only the thinking behind tradition is useful; at the method level, almost everything has failed.
03
Traditional people haven't taken their final bow yet; they are just queuing up.
The biggest problem now is that the post-90s generation simply won't play with us, and the sales team has no successors.
In the past, no matter how we said the post-80s were different, they were basically assimilated by traditional organizations. Now the post-90s stick together; some companies have pure post-90s organizations, and some have post-90s-dominated organizations. They have begun to refuse assimilation, and the remaining traditional people may be the ones being assimilated.
04
The biggest problem is that our generation's "tradition" is deeply ingrained in our bones.
Take me as an example: I was born in the agricultural civilization era, grew up in the industrial civilization era, and now have entered the information civilization era.
In the industrial civilization era, I kept reflecting that no matter our identities—professors, doctors, executives—what is in our bones is actually from agricultural civilization. To put it bluntly, it's peasant consciousness, "small peasant consciousness." Don't count back three generations; our generation is originally peasants.
**People often criticize the gap between China and Western countries, but behind the apparent gap is a gap in consciousness. The biggest gap is between our industrial thinking mixed with "peasant consciousness" and the West's complete industrial thinking.**
Perhaps a few individuals can break out, like Ma Yun, who is from the 1960s. But a group of people is unlikely to break out; a group is always limited by the times.
**Compared with the post-90s, what we lack is not internet tools, nor even the consciousness of information civilization; we carry too heavy a burden of "peasant consciousness" and "industrial consciousness."** So transformation is so heavy.
05
In times of transition, group consciousness is too powerful.
Zhang Zhidong was already good; he only talked about "Chinese learning as the foundation, Western learning for application." "Chinese learning" is from agricultural civilization, and "Western learning" is from industrial civilization. But that was already the "greatest common divisor" of society at that time.
Even now, there are so-called masters of Chinese studies who believe that "Chinese studies can save management." **The wisdom of Chinese studies is beneficial, but overall, Chinese studies is a product of agricultural civilization. How can it adapt to the industrial era in terms of production methods?** Lifestyle is another topic.
**Does the same problem exist in the transition from industrial civilization to information civilization?**
06
In recent years, I have also been trying to save myself. We are not "natives" of the internet; we either become "refugees" (retire) or become "immigrants."
But it is very, very difficult to become an immigrant.
I have a group of people around me who are trying hard to integrate into the internet, but almost none have fully integrated. To "immigrate," I have changed circles many times and learned from many people. Although others have not held back, as a traditional marketer, I always feel that the skin and flesh are not one.
More importantly, no one is willing to be our experimental field. **The internet approach is not to think clearly before acting, but to think clearly in the process of acting.**
Jiang Xiaobai is a company that does internet marketing well, and President Tao is willing to openly share, but has anyone learned it?
I am especially grateful to a company recently (I won't name it for fear of advertising suspicion) that is willing to experiment together and transform from traditional marketing to internet marketing.
**In this transformation experiment, I found that if you only treat the internet as a tool, you simply cannot use it well. The combination of the internet and marketing requires comprehensive and systematic change.**
07
Now the internet and traditional business are two worlds, and very few people can bridge them. The practice of O2O was supposed to do both online and offline together, but in reality, it was internet people doing offline. That's hilarious!
The failure of O2O proves that it is also difficult for internet people to understand traditional business.
**In the future, there will be only two types of business: one is pure internet, and the other is a combination of traditional and internet.** Of course, during the transition period, there will still be a purely traditional segment, but it is shrinking.
**In the future, there will definitely be a group of people who understand both traditional and internet, and they will be the masters of the future.**
For traditional marketers, the younger and more grassroots ones may have more hope. In contrast, the current traditional experts and executives are overall more at risk.
Some people say that they want to change personnel now, but there is no one to replace them.
08
There was a period of "boiling frog" talk, and now it has reappeared.
The internet cuts off a piece of traditional "territory" every so often: platform C2C, platform B2C, vertical B2C, B2B, WeChat business, and in the future R2C. Each cut reduces the living space for traditional marketers.
**Traditional people will not be overthrown because tradition is still the largest piece. But with each cut, the traditional territory shrinks.**
With each cut, a group of people takes their final bow.
The prospect for traditional marketers is that there is no prospect.
Some will break through, but not many.
**New Distribution's "7th B-end E-commerce Study Tour" is now recruiting!**
Activity schedule:
> June 19-23, Suzhou · Shanghai · Hangzhou
> 19th: Check in at designated hotel in Suzhou;
> 20th: Visit Suzhou Medline;
> 21st: Visit Shanghai Hd;
> 22nd: Visit Hangzhou Wangcang;
> 23rd: Return or free time for sightseeing;
**Distributor friends interested in transformation are welcome to join us to learn and conduct on-site inspections:**
**Organization format**
************1. Company visit
2. Actual market case visit
3. On-site explanation
4. One-on-one communication************
Participating distributors only need to pay a registration fee of 200 yuan.
Other expenses are self-covered.
Long press this QR code or click "Read Original" to register.
**Long press the QR code to add WeChat for registration**
**Group photos from previous study tours:**
**6th B-end E-commerce Study Tour group photo, from top to bottom: Zhongke Shangruan, Shuhai Supply Chain, Yunmei Co., Ltd., Yishang Logistics.**
**5th B-end E-commerce Study Tour group photo, from top to bottom: Huiwangxing, Beiquan, Tongying Tianxia, Quanshihui, Zhongke Shangruan.**
**4th B-end E-commerce Study Tour group photo, from top to bottom: Alibaba Retail Link, Qianmi Network.**
**3rd B-end E-commerce Study Tour group photo, from top to bottom: Yunbao Shangmeng, Weijie City Distribution, Wanshang Yizhan.**
**2nd B-end E-commerce Study Tour group photo, from top to bottom: Jinhuobao, Caiba, Yishang.**
**1st B-end E-commerce Study Tour group photo, from top to bottom: Piduoduo, Beiquan, Yishang.**
**Click "Read Original" to register**
-END-


---

## 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