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Good quality is its own advertisement
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“LOCATION, location, location” has long been the favorite slogan of real estate sellers.
However, Chinese people seem to think that the good quality of a product is more important. They say jiuxiang bupa xiangzishen, which literally means “wine with a good aroma sells itself, despite its location in a deep alley.”
Or in other words, something of good quality doesn’t need to be advertised; instead, word of mouth will prove its most effective promotion.
This Chinese proverb sounds very similar to the idea William Shakespeare expressed in his play “As You Like It.”
In the play, the character Rosalind says: “If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true, that a good play needs no epilogue.”
Any English dictionary will tell you that the word “bush” in this quotation refers to a grapevine, ivy or other greenery hung outside an inn or public house to advertise the availability of drink.
Today, people say just the opposite: jiuxiang yepa xiangzishen, or “the location in a deep alley may hinder the sales of wine, even with a good aroma.”
That seems to echo what Shakespeare is quick to add in the aforementioned quotation: “Yet to good wine, they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues.”
In other words, good quality is all fine and well, but good advertising really can help promote the sales of a product.
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