Marketing Basic Interview Preparation

By Ajay Sharma

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What is marketing?
Ans: Marketing can be termed as the process of selling a product or service. It includes
market research and advertising.

Philip Kotler defines marketing as "Satisfying needs and wants through

an exchange process". The Chartered Institute
of Marketing defines marketing as "the management process
responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably"

What do you understand by STP?

Ans: STP stands for Segmentation, Targetting and Positioning.

What are the four Ps of marketing? What are the additional 3 Ps?
Ans: The four Ps of marketing are Product, Place, Price and Placement. The additional
three Ps are People, Process and Physical Environment.
What is service marketing?
Ans: The process of marketing a service like financial services, hospitality and tourism.
It is either B2B or B2C.

What is the difference between a consumer and customer?

Ans: Customer is someone who purchases the product. A consumer is someone who
consumes/uses the product. For eg. Dog food (Bought by dog owner (customer),
consumed by the dog (consumer)).

What is market share?

Ans: A percentage of total sales volume in a market captured by a brand, product, or
company.

What’s a sales funnel?

Ans: Also known as the revenue funnel, it is the steps involved in the buying process
that a company takes its customers through while selling a product.

In marketing, what AIDA stands for?

Ans: AIDA is a marketing tool that stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action.

What do you understand by CRM?

Ans: CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.

What is the most important skill required in the marketing field?

For me the five most important skills necessary for success as a

marketer.

1. Passion: Love marketing and love telling a story.

 2. Curiosity: Social media, digital and mobile marketing have
changed the marketing landscape. The ability to learn and stay
with the latest trends and technology is essential.
3. Communication: Articulate our point of view well via speaking and
writing.
4. Analytical: Understand how to use data intelligently to influence
decisions and refine strategies.
5. Experimentation: Try something new might fail but Try again!!

What is the difference between sales and marketing?

Marketing stresses on the needs of the market. On the contrary,

sales focus on the company needs.
Sales focus on the individual, i.e. direct interaction with the
customer and persuading him to purchase the product, but
marketing concentrates on the general public, i.e. creating the
value of a product to increase sales.
What is ambush and guerrilla marketing?
Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses
surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or
service.

Marketing in bus stops and zebra crossing is the example of gurilla marketing.
Ambush marketing is the practice by which a rival company attempts to associate its products
with an event that already has official sponsors

An example of ambush marketing might involve selling music

merchandise just outside the grounds of a concert without the consent or
awareness of the concert promoters, relying on association with the
concert to drive sales.

Push and pull strategy

  Need. A human need is a state of felt deprivation. Examples include the need for food, clothing,
warmth and safety.

 Wants. Wants are how people communicate their needs. A hungry person may want a
hamburger, noodles, or cheese and bread.

 Demands.

When backed byy buying power, wants become demands.

 – Mission statement describes the present state of the organization.

– Who are our customers?

– What is our core competency?

– Who are you?

– Vision statement describes the future state of the organization.

– Who do I want to be?

Where do we want to go?

Boston consulting matrix
General electric approach matrix

Ansoff matrix
– Market Penetration: (Making more sales without
changing its original product)
– Marketing mix improvement-design,
advertising, pricing & distribution efforts
– Market Development: (Identifying & developing
new markets for its current products)
– Explored new geographic markets: Middle east,
North America, Australia, India
– Product Development: (Offering modified or new
products to current markets)
– Added Tomato Katchup, Chinese Sauces,
Pickles, Jams, desserts
– Diet versions of products
– Diversification: (Starting up or buying businesses
outside of its current products and markets)
– Ronaq brand of ready to eat meals
 Strategic alliance
– Product or Service Alliance (Credit Card)
– Promotional Alliance (McDonald & Disney)
– Logistic Alliances (DHL & Tanisq)
– Pricing Collaboration (Hotel & rental car
companies)
Addressing competition and driving growth
 Customer lifecycle
 Prospect
 First time buyer
 Repeat buyer
 Core buyer
 Defector
Customer buying decision process
Problem recognition
Information search
Evaluation of alternatives
Purchase decision
Postpurchase behavior
A consumer’s decision to modify, postpone, or
avoid a purchase decision is heavily influenced by
one or more types of perceived risk:
1. Functional risk—The product does not perform
to expectations.
2. Physical risk—The product poses a threat to the
physical well-being or health of the user or others.
3. Financial risk—The product is not worth the price
paid.
4. Social risk—The product results in
embarrassment in front of others.
5. Psychological risk—The product affects the
mental well-being of the user.
6. Time risk—The failure of the product results in an
opportunity cost of finding another satisfactory
product.
Mashlow’s herirachy of needs
Managers who believe the customer is the company’s only true “profit center”
consider the traditional organization chart in Figure 5.1(a)—a pyramid with the
president at the top, management in the middle, and frontline people and
customers at the bottom—obsolete.

Successful marketing companies invert the chart to look like Figure 5.1(b). At
the top are customers; next in importance are frontline people who meet,
serve, and satisfy them; under them are the middle managers, whose job is to
support the frontline people so they can serve customers well; and at the base
is top management, whose job is to hire and support good middle managers.
We have added customers along the sides of Figure 5.1(b) to indicate that
managers at every level must be personally engaged in knowing, meeting, and
serving customers
Total customer cost is the perceived bundle of costs
customers expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining,
using, and disposing of the given market offering,
including monetary, time, energy, and psychological
costs.
In marketing, customer lifetime valuvalue (CLV)) is a metric that represents
the total net profit a company makes from any given customer.
custome CLV is a
projection to estimate a customer'
customer's monetary worth to a business after
factoring in the value of the relationship with a customer over time
tim

Types of market segmentation:

a. geographic segmentation
segmentation—state, nations
b. demographic segmentation
age, sex and income
c. behavioral segmentation
need and benefits, decision roles, attitude towards use
of, response to product
d. psychographic
social class, lifecycle, personality
The company’s microenvironment