Ding Shi'an: The spirit of the teacher is eternal, and the fire of conflict is always bright
——In memory of Master Ye Maozhong
Mr. Ye Maozhong unfortunately passed away on January 13, 2022, just 54 years like a white colt, Master dedicated his life's wisdom and ambition to the cause of Chinese marketing without reservation, and put all his love and compassion into art. My fate in life was also completely changed because of my acquaintance with Master 25 years ago.
In 1998, it was Master who brought me, a young fellow who had just graduated, to the market planning industry, Master took me to do market research, engage in creativity, and write plans, I followed Master all the way, from ignorance of marketing to leading the team to do projects, and now standing on the front line of disseminating conflict theory, Master is the guide and enlightening light in my career. Whenever I encounter some doubts, Master always wakes me up and gives me inspiration and guidance; and whenever I have achieved some results, I will always be eager to tell Master that his words or a message can bring me infinite strength and encouragement, and I have reliance in my heart, full of energy, and Master is the one who makes me feel stronger in my heart.
Not only that, but Master is also a close relative in my life. I have been following Master since I was in my early 20s, and for so many years, he treated me like a brother, from my marriage to the time I settled down in Shanghai, several major events in my life, Master was sponsoring me, taking care of me, and recognizing my two children as dry sons.
A person's life, sometimes it is enough to meet one person. It is no exaggeration to say that everything I have now, whether it is career or life, the noble person I have to thank the most is Master.
One of our customer bosses said: Ye Maozhong does creativity, brain circuits are different from ordinary people, there are always shortcuts. Master said that he was destined to have a relationship with planning in this life, Master is indeed a person born for marketing planning, but Master founded Ye Maozhong Marketing Planning Company for more than 30 years, can make a household success case, more dependent on his extreme obsession and dedication to marketing, which is difficult for outsiders to see, ordinary people are more difficult to do a big dedication.
In my early years, I worked with Master, ate and lived with Him, and he had a pen and a notebook at his bedside all year round. He thinks about the project all day long, even when he dreams, he thinks about ideas, and once he has a good idea, he will write it down in a notebook as soon as he wakes up. Even after achieving a very high achievement and status, this humble little habit was still maintained by Master.
Master said that at a certain stage of life, the attitude of being responsible for life is to play with life. As soon as the project is done, the master has no concept of time, after each interview with the customer, the master will take us to sort out the interview information, no matter how late, we must make the interview content summary report out on the same day, not only do we have to raid overnight, he also accompanies us all night.
He is like this for planning, always with more than 100% dedication, always a great desire to pursue customer success, his ambition to do the best has deeply infected me and benefited me so far.
Master often said to me, to do planning, 80 rely on the feet, 20 rely on the brain. Master's success in marketing is also inseparable from his in-depth insight into China's national conditions and consumers. For more than 20 years, I have followed Master almost all over the country, from cities, towns to rural areas, and every time Master goes to a place, whether it is by taxi or for a walk after a busy day, he always likes to talk to strangers around him, asking them what brand of toothpaste they usually use, what brand of shirt they usually wear, and what kind of milk powder and clothes to buy for children. Whether marketing is effective, in a word, must be grounded. Throughout his life, Master admired Chairman Mao, and he developed his own habits of life by going deep among the masses to conduct research and investigation. Because of this, the works led by Master can always accurately grasp the actual situation of consumers, point directly to people's hearts, and bring sharp and fatal results to customers' brands and marketing.
Marketing is a hard industry, but Master's goals and ambitions allow him to see his hard work as ordinary. Master said that when he was a child, he especially admired the Red Army, so wearing a red star hat became his personal symbol. The Red Army was not afraid of expeditions and difficulties, and thousands of rivers and mountains were only idle, and this spirit gave Master great encouragement and motivation. In the marketing industry, he tasted the bitterness that ordinary people have never tasted, and also tasted the sweetness that mortals can't taste, seeking pleasure in bitterness, enjoying it, and enjoying it.
Putting aside the aura of marketing, the master in life is also a person who can insist on himself and do things persistently.
Art is the dream that Master has saved since childhood, and for decades, Master has never stopped his dedication to art while doing marketing planning. Master collected a lot of celebrity calligraphy and paintings, but the purpose of Master's collection is different from the investment purpose of ordinary people, he is more to better learn from the ancients and learn the calligraphy and painting achievements of the masters.
After Master's illness in 2019, his refinement of the art of calligraphy and painting accelerated again. Although the doctor repeatedly told Master not to paint and not to be tired, once the body allowed something, Master would seize every minute and second to collect style, sketch, and create.
One of Master's favorite songs is Beyond's "The Farmer", which has two words that say: Whether it is a good year or a famine year, ask if you feel like you don't look at money. Master's planning and doing things, including artistic creation, has always been like this, just trying to do everything, rather than asking about the harvest geometry first. Last year, with the assistance of Master's good brother Mr. Liu Yiqian, Master's solo exhibition achieved sensational results. On the day of the opening ceremony, the entire Long Museum was submerged in a sea of flowers, from the marketing circle, the corporate world to the media world and the art circle, giving a high evaluation to Master's artistic achievements. Although Master was unable to participate in the whole process of holding the illness, this should be a great blessing that could make the Master in pain feel comforted.
Doing marketing, Master is beyond harsh on himself; doing art, Master always perseveres. Master's perfectionist personality is not only reflected in the field of marketing and art, in fact, his requirements for his own body and image are also very high. Over the years, he has always given the impression of being a powerful, positive fighter. It is hard to imagine that Master can continue to exercise every day in addition to his busy work and creation, even if he is over 50 years old, he is still a muscle, and his figure is quite enviable.
Master told me that only by doing a good job in the body can we better do marketing and talk about conflict. In order to encourage me to stick to the fitness like him, he specially pulled a group, let us run 5 kilometers a day, and sent the record into the group to show him, as long as I can stick to 1 month, he will reward me with 100,000. But coincidentally, when I ran to the 20th day, I was unable to persevere alone because my companion's leg was injured.
Persistence, two words, is really easy to say, and it is not easy to do this like Master.
When our Ye Maozhong Marketing Planning Company was still in the Beijing Olympic Center, I lived with My Master in the Erlizhuang community not far away. At that time, I went to work with Master during the day, and when I came back at night, I would cook two dishes. In fact, I don't know how to cook, but Master has always liked my fried pork ears with sharp peppers and winter melon ribs kelp soup.
After so many years, Master still remembered it. Every three to five minutes, Master would say: Anzi, come to the house for two drinks at night. I knew that Master wanted to eat the two dishes I cooked again. After the company and family moved to Shanghai, every Year during the New Year, I would cook these two dishes at home, bring them to Master's house, and take the children with me to pay homage to Master for the New Year. Master and I don't want much, just these two dishes, we can drink for one night.
Master didn't want much, no matter how poor and rich he was, for decades, the simple two dishes he loved to eat had not changed; what could make him feel satisfied and happy in his heart was to put on an easel and engage in creation.
But Master wants a lot more, and he wants more Chinese brands to succeed.
For more than 30 years, we have served enterprises in Ye Maozhong Marketing Planning Company, creative advertising films, and classic cases that are well known inside and outside the industry. As one of the earliest batch of marketing planners in China, Master is second to none in terms of practice resume and successful experience, and there is no need to repeat it.
But because of this, Master also has higher expectations and pursuits.
Chinese marketing is born with the reform and opening up, local marketing theory can be said to be a desert, can be known to domestic enterprises and marketers and use of imported theory.
Today, China's marketing has turned the world upside down, very different from the past, more different from any country in the world, the internet development is changing with each passing day, the media environment is ever-changing, the Chinese market is the most dynamic and imaginative treasure, but also, for the marketing of enterprises, today's Chinese market, has entered a new era with no example to rely on, opportunities are fleeting, the old method can not solve new problems, the effectiveness of traditional marketing theory is weakening, Chinese enterprises continue to move forward, It is urgent to be able to quickly seize opportunities and grasp the dividends of the times as a theoretical beacon to continue to lead the way.
Master has repeatedly stressed that as a pioneer and vanguard in local marketing planning companies, we have the responsibility and mission to sum up the ideas and logic behind the success achieved in the Chinese market for decades, form simple and easy to understand, good application, and effective theories and methods, and help Chinese enterprises make marketing colorful, so that more Chinese brands can come out.
The master's pattern and vision are difficult for ordinary people to look up to. After climbing to the peak of the marketing planning industry, Master turned his eyes and ambitions to the great ambition of creating a local marketing theory.
On the basis of decades of unremitting pen work, a series of marketing professional books have been published and distributed, in 2017, Master set the culmination of his lifelong marketing practice, deleted the complicated and simplified, and finally published the book "Conflict", which also officially announced the birth of the local marketing theory "Conflict Theory".
Conflict theory deconstructs complex marketing systems to the extreme simplicity and seminality, and pioneers that marketing is about solving consumer conflicts. No matter how the external environment of the market changes, the most important and fundamental thing in marketing is to capture those unchanging factors, that is, the conflict in human nature. Conflict generates demand, and to form effective marketing, we must first gain insight into consumer conflict. This is master formally from the height of philosophy, unlocking the essence of marketing, unlocking the lowest logic of business.
Marketing and marketing magazine evaluation conflict as "China's first local marketing theory", conflict theory to fill the gap in local marketing theory, but also several generations of Chinese marketers after nearly 40 years of marketing baptism, for the further development and improvement of the world marketing theory contributed chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions. For this reason, some foreign media praised Master as China's Philip Kotler.
Conflict theory is also the basic methodology of Master's planning for more than 30 years, especially after the release of the book "Conflict", not only traditional enterprises, but also many emerging Internet companies, but also through the application of conflict theory, branding and marketing success. Conflict theory provides a new perspective and path for promoting the rise of Chinese brands, and the practical value of conflict theory is more precious than its contribution to world marketing theory.
Master had high expectations for conflict theory, and until he fell ill and was hospitalized, he focused almost entirely on the dissemination of conflict theory. Soon after the release of "Conflict", Master held several special lectures on conflict theory, and the scene was often crowded with people, and it was difficult to find a ticket.
In order to make it easier for enterprises to learn, understand and apply conflict theory, Master spent half a year rewriting the second edition of Conflict on the basis of the first edition of "Conflict". Master told me that in order to change the 2nd edition of "Conflict", his eyes were almost blind. Master changed chapter by chapter, grinded word by word, often stayed up all night, and sent it to me every time he changed a chapter to discuss and deliberate together. At the end of the last chapter, he sent me a message: for the ambition of the ambition, dare to call marketing for theory. After the book was finalized, the nearly 350,000 words in the original version had been painstakingly condensed into about 70,000 words by Master.
In order to enable more enterprises to learn conflict theory, in 2019, Master urged me to set up conflict theory seminars and open classes to teach conflict theory to entrepreneurs and marketers across the country. This is another huge project, Master led me to do courseware, page by page to check, adjust, until the final draft. Finally, in June of that year, the first conflict training class was successfully opened, and at the opening ceremony, Master also came to the scene and gave lectures to the students, pressing the platform for us.
After Master fell ill, he set me a goal to teach at least 1,000 conflict lessons. In order to reassure me to continue the conflict course, Master often sent me messages of encouragement before I took the stage.
During the epidemic in 2020, I broadcast the conflict class online for the first time, and what I did not expect was that Master had actually been watching the whole process, and at the same time improvised an ink painting "Long March", implying that the theory of communication conflict is a long march. As soon as the live broadcast ended, Master sent me the painting and congratulated me on my first step in disseminating the theory of conflict online.
The year 2022 has just arrived, and when I was still teaching conflict courses in other places, I received the bad news of the unfortunate death of Master, and I suddenly felt a dizziness in front of my eyes, and for a while I didn't know where people were, what night or night.
I have lost my mentor and good brother forever, and the Chinese marketing industry has also lost a banner figure and a generation of legendary masters, but Master has left the spark of wisdom that illuminates Chinese marketing and the rise of Chinese brands to the world. In just five years, conflict books have been issued more than 500,000 copies, and have repeatedly appeared on the list of hot books, and have been collected by the National Library; in less than three years, under the guidance and requirements of Master, I have taught hundreds of courses on conflict theory in more than 30 cities across the country, and conflict theory has influenced thousands of Chinese marketers and guided the marketing practices of thousands of enterprises.
"Anzi, let us work together to advocate and practice Chinese-style marketing theory for the rest of our lives." Master's words to me are still in my ears, grateful to Master for taking me on the road of conflict theory, my generation can only take the torch of conflict, work harder to spread, practice and develop conflict theory, help more enterprises not take the marketing detour, boost the rise of Chinese brands, struggle unceasingly, and move forward, this is Master's high hopes, but also the obvious mission of conflict theory.
If the heavens are full of love, the sky is old, the fire of conflict is burning, and the spirit of Master will always accompany me.
I would like to commemorate my mentor with this article.
Disciple Ding Shi'an
January 21, 2022