What Exactly Is Marketing?

As the Chinese New Year is approaching, I recall all the same old questions the concerned uncles and aunties throw to me. From the time I was single ( "Oh, where is your boyfriend?" "Stop having such high criterias for boyfriend!") to the time I got attached ("How long have you been together?" "When are you getting married?" "Are you all getting a house anytime soon?") and finally got hitched ("When are you going to give birth?" "Why are you not having babies?", I was never spared once from these bombardings. 

But the toughest question from the bunch of aunties in their 70s to early 80s? "What Is Marketing?"

When I was younger, I tried explaining to them and their impression was that marketing was plainly putting up advertisements in traditional media such as newspapers, magzines, radio or television. Trust me, getting them to understand marketing was way more than that, was very difficult. Well, I don't blame them as they were not exposed to marketing at all. Translating the word "marketing" into Chinese didn't help at all, in fact it confused them even more.

So, I have come up with an idea this year to tackle the same question. When I get asked again this year, I will tell them that, marketing is packaging a product or service so good that people believe that it is a must to get the product or service. To do so, I talk to the right people face to face, online and spread good reviews about the product and service - all through eyes and ears. Yes, I also do advertising but it is no longer just an into-the-face technique.

In short, marketing is really about using my brain to control or in another words, poison others' brains. Sounds psychotic but that's me. That's marketing.