Marketing interview questions and answers

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Marketing interview questions - March 23, 2009 at 21:30 PM by Manish Rajani What is marketing? Explain its core concepts. Marketing can be referred to as a form of communication with your customers, with the help of marketing tools....... Explain -Customer delivered value, Total customer value, Total customer cost. Customer delivered value - The term marketing does not revolve around fulfilling the needs of a consumer alone but also includes the value............. Explain - Basic marketing, Reactive marketing, Accountable marketing, Proactive marketing, Partnership marketing. Basic marketing is the set of activities used to get your potential customer's attention. After this one has to formulate.......... What do you mean by marketing mix? The term marketing mix is referred to the amalgamation and use of the four Ps of marketing in a manner so as to attain the highest level............. What are the components of Macro environment? Macro environment is basically referred to the area of external business operations of a particular organization.............. What is buying behavior? The decision making process which involves the period before, during and after buying or purchasing a product is referred to as the buying behavior of a customer...... What are the major factors influencing buying behavior? Personal factors can be related to the persons age, sex , race, religion, occupation, educational qualifications, level of authority etc..... What are the stages of buying decision process? Stages of buying decision process: Problem Recognition, Information search, Evaluation of Alternatives, Purchase decision, Purchase, Post-Purchase Evaluation...... Explain - Business market, Consumer market Business market in simple words is business to business market where in the products or services of a particular organization are sold to or purchased by other organization or business......

Who are the major participants in business buying process? The major participants in business buying process are..... Explain - Pure monopoly, Oligopoly, Monopolistic competition, Pure Competition Monopoly is a market situation in which there is only one seller of a product with barriers to entry of others..... What are the qualities of useful market segments? A market segment must have the following qualities........... What can be the bases for a.) Product differentiation/ Services Differentiation b.) Personnel Differentiation c.) Image differentiation Modify the objective properties of the products or services.............. What is PLC? Explain the stages of PLC? Product life cycle refers to the presence of the product in the marketplace with respect to the ups and down in its business costs and sales activities........ What are the common patterns observed in PLC? The most important patterns observed in product life-cycles are......... What is a product? Explain width, length and depth of a product mix. Product refers to the bundle of tangible and intangible attributes that a seller offers to a buyer in return of a particular predefined amount of payment in a particular mode.......

What are the keys to marketing success?

Keys to marketing success can be summarized in below mentioned points: a. the foremost important point is to satisfy the customer. b. A company should have a clear image in order to achieve marketing success. c. Thirdly work should be clearly distinct from other business activities in an organization. It should be central to the entire organization. d. Fourthly business should develop a unique strategy that is consistent with the circumstances that it faces.

Mention the various components of marketing management

Marketing management components can be divided into following points: a. Corporate level : It consists of companys mission and objectives. b. Functional level : Non marketing and marketing institutions are included in it. c. Marketing level : It consists of situation analysis, objectives, strategy, implementation, budget, and evaluation. d. The marketing mix consists of product, distribution, promotion, and price.

What were the different approaches used in marketing earlier?

There were three marketing approaches used earlier: a. Production orientation: An organization which focuses on production specializes in producing most of the given services and products without considering the quality. b. Product orientation: An organization which focuses on product orientation is mainly concerned with the quality of the products. c. Selling orientation: An organization which uses sales orientation mainly focuses on the selling or promoting a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such.

Explain Service marketing. Also explain what is a service

a. Service marketing can be defined as marketing of services. Its not same for tangible products. Services if compared with goods then neither all products are purely goods nor services. In more clear words service can be defined as b. use of the service is not separated from its purchase. c. A service can never be in material form and therefore it cannot be touched, seen, heard, tasted, or smelled. d. The use of a service is inherently subjective, i.e. if many people are experiencing services then each of them will experience it uniquely.

What are the current approaches used for marketing?

Current approaches used for marketing can be categorized in four categories: a. Relationship marketing: This approach basically deals with customer satisfaction. The whole emphasis is done on the relationship between the suppliers and customers. b. Business Marketing: It does not focuses on consumer products rather it focuses on industrial goods. All sort of marketing techniques are like promotion, advertising, etc are used. c. Social marketing: It focuses on marketing a product socially i.e. online.

What is an International marketing plan?

a. It involves the organization in making more then one marketing decisions across the nations. b. There are many reasons to enter an international market led by large market size and diversification. c. There are also several reasons to avoid entering international markets, including too much red tape, trade barriers, and transportation difficulties . d. The stages of going international are as follows: exporting, licensing, joint ventures, direct investment, U.s. commercial centers, trade intermediaries, and alliances .

What is marketing communication?

Marketing communication can be defined as the efforts made by the seller to convey his message to his buyers and to accept it in retrievable form. The main point of communication process is persuasion. It is totally goal oriented. It is not an haphazard activity. Each of its tool consists of specific complexities and potentialities that justify managerial specialization.

What are the various types of marketing research?

various types of marketing research are: a. Field research : It is related to the research for a specific purpose. b. Desk research: Usually it is conducted for one purpose initially but gradually it is used to support another goal. c. Xploratory research: It investigates an assumption.. d. Predictive research: This type of research is done to predict any future occurrence. e. Conclusive research: This type of research is done to derive a conclusion of a research process.

What is real-time marketing? How it became important?

Real time marketing can be defined as marketing done to a customer in a particular time and place. It is the kind of marketing which seeks the most appropriate offer for a particular customer. Real-time marketing is the outcome of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions in major companies.Over time Real-time marketing became a big solution for vendors and maturing customers. Vendors found themselves re-branding real-time marketing products to suggest a more holistic appreciation of enterprise interaction decision management.

What is interruption marketing?

Interruption marketing can be defined as promoting a product by the means of advertising, public relation and sales. It is not suitable every time and depends upon company to company. It is very much sales directed, so if a company has limited funds to invest for advertising and wants quick results then interruption marketing is best. But at times it is not considered a fruitful way of marketing.

What is the difference between Interruption marketing and permission marketing?

There is a vast difference between permission marketing and interruption marketing. Permission marketing is getting found by the customers by itself by the means of SEO, social media and content. It basically focuses on maintaining long term relationship with the customers which is always helpful in long run whereas Interruption marketing focuses on getting quick sales without any thought of long term relationship with customers. It just targets on promoting the product by the means of advertising, promotion etc. to get quick results.

Explain diversity marketing

This type of marketing focuses on creating effective communication methods and mixing with each of the diverse groups active in the market. Because different consumer groups have experiences in different cultural and social settings, therefore diversity marketing recognizes the importance of cultural programming and acknowledges the consumers accordingly. Different cultural programming, the tastes, values, expectations, beliefs, ways of interaction, ways of entertainment, and lifestyle preferences of these groups tend to be different from others so these differences require the creation of customised marketing strategies.

What is ethical marketing? explain in brief.

Considering marketing ethics in the process of marketing is called ethical marketing. Briefly, if we explain it is the philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular marketing issues that are matters of moral judgment. It results into business community which is much more responsible socially and culturally.Its existence is very much beneficial to the society also. It should be the part of business ethics because it plays a very significant part in any business model. It gives those benefits to its customers which other companies does not even recognise.

What is segmented market?

Segmenting market is to segment the customer and organizations so that each segments needs can be recognized and fulfilled properly. The advantage is that there is no need of selling the product to all the segments of market infact a particular segment can be targeted according to their requirements. Market segmentation is done in two steps: a. first step is to identify and classify people into homogeneous groupings which are called segments. b. second step is finding out which of these segments are f target markets.

What are the objective of segmentation analysis?

The main essence of segmentation analysis is: a. To minimize the risk in taking decisions regarding how, who, when and where to market a a product service or a

brand. b. To maximize efficiency of marketing by directing effort towards a particular segment in a consistent manner with that segment's characteristics.

What are the two major segmentation strategies followed by the marketing organizations? Explain in brief.
The two strategies followed are: a. Concentration strategy: This kind of segmentation strategy deals in a particular segment of market and therefore they set their prices, etc accordingly. For eg Mercedes benz has chosen to concentrate on the luxury segment of the the car market. b. Multi segment strategy: This kind of segmentation strategy focuses on more then one different market segments. They make separate marketing programs for separate segments.

What are various kind of influences which affects consumer behaviour?

There are various influences, few of them are: a. Situational Influences: It consists of Market offerings, Demographics and Complexity. b. External Influences: It consists of Cultural, Social class Reference groups. c. Internal factors and processes: i. Psychological Characteristics -Motivation, Learning/socialization, Personality, Attitudes, Lifestyle ii. Decision Making - Recognize needs, Search for information, Evaluate alternatives, Make purchase, Post purchase.

What is test marketing?

Test marketing is done in order to test the various variabilities including the elements of the product in a marketing plan. It projects the actual launching of the whole marketing program but on a limited basis. In short it can be said that it is the last step before the product is released. Mention the various steps of a new product development process Various steps which are followed is mentioned below: a. Creating new product ideas b. Go through ideas c. Research and analyze d. Technical and marketing development e. Manufacturing planning f. Marketing planning g. Test marketing h. Commercialization

What is false advertising?

False advertising is using false statements to promote products and increase profit lines for a company or a brand. Such advertisements use deception to persuade people. Such advertisements completely deny the right to know for consumers and are banned in many countries. Still they have been a trend by finding legal ways to deceive people.

Some possible work strengths in no particular order:

Strong leader Good manager Initiative (willing to take on new things) Follow-through (seeing a task through to the end) Good at bringing things in on deadline Determination (as in seeing a project through to the end or in finding a solution to a problem) Quick learner Problem solver Flexibility Good at seeing the big picture even when dealing with the details Good at details, but also know how to see the big picture Strong at a given skill required by the job (like Java programming, project management,

teaching, writing, web design, customer service, phone manner, math, public speaking, etc.)
Good people skills Good team player Ability to help influence change Creativity Good at finding ways to improve existing business processes Good at resolving conflict
My Strength is I am self motivator, positive thinker, try to adaptable to any environment and keep smile on my face in any serious situation. My short and long term goal is to create identity at myself in workplace. First of all sir thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Rohan kocher. I am a chartered accountant. I am also pursuing company secretary. I did B. COM from Udaipur. My strengths are-workaholic hard worker. -positive attitude. -good communication skills as I am a professional anchor. My weakness is I try to complete work before time that sometimes create problems with other member of the team. That's all about me.

Thank you very much.

Part one
Normally, Part one will consist of a one-sentence statement of your career history, i.e., essentially the condensed version of your entire career history. But thats not as challenging as perhaps it might first appear. Here is an example of how Part One can easily be constructed: I am a five-year veteran of LAN/WAN administration and systems engineering, with substantial experience using Novell, NT, Cisco and Lotus Notes/Domino.

Part

two

Part two consists of a one- OR two-sentence summary of a single career accomplishment that you are especially proud of and one that can reasonably be expected to capture the potential employers attention. It must also be an accomplishment that can be easily explained and/or illustrated and it absolutely MUST highlight a bottomline impact for the potential employer. Here is an example: Recently, as a long-term contract employee at a local regional bank, I learned that the bank was about to install Lotus Notes/Domino and they were planning to use outside consultants for the project. I let them know that I had done a similar installation at my last assignment, outlined how we could get the job done with in-house staff and successfully complete the installation for $55-$65K less than it would have cost with outside consultants.

Part three

This final part is the most dynamic, as well as the part that must be customized to fit the particular career opportunity being sought. It needs to be a one- OR two-sentence summary of specifically what you want to do in your next career move AND it must be relevant to the position being sought. Here is an example of how Part Three might be constructed: For the next step in my career, I would like to move away from contract work and find myself as a direct employee of a large firm where I can join a substantial IT team and be involved with a group that focuses on email and network security applications, while having access to the knowledge base that would come with a large, diverse IT group. OR, here is yet another example of how Part Three might be prepared: For the next step in my career, I would like to find myself as a direct employee of a small- to medium-sized firm that is looking to hire an in-house IT generalist so I can continue growing my career by getting exposure to multiple IT areas, such as networking, help desk, security, and application issues for the users of the organization. As the firms IT needs grow, I would love to apply my past team project management skills to managing the members of a small, growing IT team. As you can see, two very different endings but ones that perfectly match what two different employers are looking for in a candidate.

Putting it all together

Lets assume that Suzanne Smith is applying for a chemical engineering position with XYZ, Inc., and at the beginning of the job interview, the hiring manager asks, Well, Suzanne, in order to get the ball rolling, tell me a little bit about yourself. Here is how Suzanne might answer the question, in order to brand herself, right off the bat, as certainly not being just an average candidate:

I am a chemical engineer with eight years of experience, four which were in process engineering at Clorox working on improving plant productivity and four in specialty resin chemical sales where I help customers develop new products that improve their competitiveness in the marketplace. (Part One) Recently, through networking, I learned of a company that had great products except for their concrete coating line. I knew that we had a resin that would enable the company to develop a faster drying concrete coating, thereby improving the companys ability to compete more effectively in their marketplace. I called on the decision-makers, got their interest, worked with R&D and helped them develop a product line that resulted in $2 million in new sales for the company in the first year, which meant $400K in new sales for us. (Part Two) For the next step in my career, I would like to be with a larger firm with more resources so that I can continue to drive business and grow sales for both the company and my customers in a wider variety of applications. Once I have proven myself and earned the right to get promoted, I would like to use my skills to lead and develop a sales team.(Part Three) Does Suzannes answer adequately address all THREE criteria (parts) recommended in an answer to the tell me about yourself question? You bet it does!