Marketing Yourself:

1

• Marketing Yourself
• Analyzing the Marketing Interview

2
Analyzing the Marketing Interview

• What recruiters look for
• Interview process
• Preparation
• Case questions
• Overview
• Marketing frameworks
• Advertising
• Resources
• Appendix Sample interview questions

3
What Recruiters Look For

• Recruiters are looking for demonstrated examples
  of the following
• Leadership ability
• Analytical skills/problem solving capabilities
• Results orientation
• Teamwork
• Strong communications skills
• Creativity
• Interest in and awareness of marketing issues
• Passion for the product/industry/etc.
• You can draw on RIC, professional, undergraduate
  and extracurricular activities to showcase your
  abilities
• You do NOT need to have previous marketing
  experience
• You DO need to show how your past successes and
  experiences will allow you to succeed in a
  marketing environment

4
Interview Process Overview

• Interview process typically consists of 2-3
  rounds of interviews
• Interviews last between 30-45 minutes
• Mix of general, behavioral and case questions
• Some interviewers (especially in later rounds)
  may focus on a particular subject (e.g. case
  question, situational questions)
• Different interviewers may discuss candidates
  amongst themselves, but you can repeat examples

5
Interview Process General Questions

• Many interviews will start with getting to know
  you questions
• Tell me about yourself
• Walk me through your resume
• Answer this question concisely
• Focus on key decisions why you majored in what
  you did, what led you to your first job, what
  skills you developed and why you left, why you
  decided to come to Rhode island College, what
  your next move is, etc.
• Dont just restate your resume
• Talk about a common thread that leads you to a
  marketing position now
• This is your story so make sure you know it
  inside and out and be confident when you tell it
• Anticipate problems and know how youre going
  to steer around them

6
Interview Process Behavioral Questions

• Interviewers look to past demonstrated behavior
  to predict future performance
• Be prepared with multiple examples for key
  competencies (e.g., leadership, teamwork,
  problem-solving, etc.)
• Listen to the question and then organize your
  answer according to a framework
• Most common is the CAR framework
• Context Describe the situation (What was the
  problem?)
• Action Describe what steps were taken and be
  specific about your role (What did you do?)
• Result Relate what the result was and when
  possible try to quantify the impact (What
  happened?)
• Most common mistake not answering the question
  posed by the interviewer
• When in doubt, repeat it or write it down!

7
Interview Process Marketing Questions

• Many interviewers will probe your interest in and
  knowledge of marketing
• Types of marketing questions
• Structured case question (What would you do if)
• Open-ended (Tell me about a recent marketing
  initiative of yours that went well, and why?)
• Specific aspect of the marketing mix (e.g.,
  critique a print ad or product)
• Zany question (Give me a 1 minute commercial
  about yourself)

8
Preparation Company Research

• Know what youre talking about!
• Main product lines? New vs. mature products?
• Who are the principal competitors? Whats
  happening in the industry overall?
• What are the main distribution channels? Whats
  driving revenue growth? Where might future
  opportunities lie?
• Why do I want to go to this company?
• Sources of information
• Career Placement Center
• Networking with RIC alums, etc.
• Grocery stores, Target, WalMart, Costco for
  consumer goods
• Relevant channels for product/tech marketing
• Analyst reports (read one or two)
• Companys annual report
• Company website (check for press releases)
• WSJ, Business Week, WetFeet, Barrons, trade
  journals, etc.

9
Preparation Interview Prep Document

• Helps you organize key examples from your resume
• Important for the resume walk and behavioral
  questions
• Type it and review it before your interview but
  DO NOT refer to it during the interview
• Organize it by question type
• Resume walk
• Why marketing/brand management
• Why that specific company
• Leadership, Teamwork, Initiative, Analytical
  Thinking, Creativity, and any additional
  behavioral/skill areas the company looks for
  (available on company website/careers)
• Use bullets
• Outline your answers according to a framework
• Have 3 examples for each in CAR framework

10
Case Questions Overview

• Why Case Questions?
• Evaluate your ability to articulate complex
  thoughts
• Assess strategic and analytical thinking
• Evaluate your understanding of the business
• Evaluate your basic understanding of marketing
  issues
• Evaluate your ability to think creatively
• You can use basic case frameworks for almost all
  marketing related questions
• These cases tend to be different than
  consulting interviews
• There is not necessarily a right answer

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Case Questions Overview (Cont.)

• Process
• Interviewer gives a hypothetical business
  situation
• Step back, analyze the situation and come up with
  some recommendations for how you would solve the
  problem
• Take the interviewer through your thought process
• Common Mistakes
• Jumping to recommendations w/o a thoughtful
  analysis
• Throwing out marketing tactics w/o grounding them
  in the situation/strategy
• Weak analysis/understanding of the situation
• Not taking the interviewer through your thought
  process

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Basic Frameworks

• Analyze market opportunities 3Cs
• Competitive analysis
• Consumer analysis
• Company analysis
• Select the Target Market STP
• Market segmentation
• Targeting
• Positioning
• Formulate the Marketing Mix 4Ps
• Product
• Pricing
• Promotion
• Placement (Distribution)

13
Case Frameworks 3Cs

• Step 1
• Think about the question in the context of the
  market
• Consumer ALWAYS START WITH THE CONSUMER
• What consumer insights might be driving the
  problem?
• Is this a product that addresses a consumer need?
• Company
• What are the companys constraints and
  capabilities?
• financial, operational, etc.
• Competition
• What is the competition doing?
• How does the company differentiate itself from
  the competition?

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Case Frameworks STP

• Step 2
• Select the target market and position the product
• Segmentation segments the market into distinct
  groups of buyers with differing needs,
  characteristics, behavior, product usage, etc.
• Geographic segmentation
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Behavior
• Targeting the company decides to target a group
  of buyers that share common needs or
  characteristics
• Evaluate the opportunities posed by the different
  segments
• Is there a group of buyers whose needs are not
  currently met?
• What is the market size?
• Positioning a products position is the place
  the product occupies in the minds of consumers,
  relative to competitive products
• To (target market), X is the brand of (frame of
  reference) that (benefit/differentiation) because
  (product attribute) so that (emotional appeal)

15
Case Frameworks 4Ps

• Step 3
• Given the market conditions, what would a
  marketer do?
• Product
• Do I introduce a new product?
• Do I develop a line extension?
• Do I find new product uses?
• Price
• Retail and discounts
• Skim vs. penetrate
• Perceived value vs. cost plus margin
• Placement
• What channels do I sell in to best meet the
  consumers expectations?
• Promotion
• Through what media do I promote the product?
• How will I most cost effectively build top of
  mind awareness?

16
Advertising Questions

• Interviewers may ask an advertising-related
  question (e.g., Give me an example of an
  effective/ineffective ad)
• Strategic considerations
• What is the objective of the ad?
• Who is the target?
• What is the product positioning?
• Execution
• Does the ad achieve its communication objectives?
• Does the ad appeal to the target audience?
• If humor is used, does it work?
• Is the ad consistent with the brand attributes?

17
Appendix

• Sample cases
• Classic interview questions

18
Sample Cases

• Competitive Threat
• You are the brand manager and a major competitor
  is introducing a new product form. How do you
  assess the threat? How would you react?
• Falling Share
• You are the brand manager in a mature, declining
  category and your market share has been declining
  over the past 18 months. What would you do to
  reinvigorate the category and your market share?

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Sample Cases

• New Products
• You are brand manager looking to introduce a new
  product. Who would you need to work with?
• Commodity Question
• Go to your refrigerator and pull out a product.
  How would you market that product?
• Forecasting
• Given the demographics in the U.S., how many red
  sports cars do you think you could sell?

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Sample Cases

• Take a minute to think of a product you believe
  is under-marketed. Tell me why you believe that,
  and then discuss the steps you would take to
  develop a marketing plan for that product.
• If you wanted to extend the Starbucks product
  line, how would you do it?
• You are Brand Manager of Brand X. Your director
  tells you to evaluate a price increase as she
  wants to increase the profitability of your
  business. Should you do it?

21
Classic Interview Questions

• Do read the list to get a sense of the general
  themes
• DO NOT try to answer every one in your prep
  document or youll go crazy!
• Do try to pick 3-4 examples under each category
  and include relevant info about each in your prep
  document so you can adapt those examples to
  different questions

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Classic Questions General

• What did you choose Rhode Island College?
• Why are you interested in marketing/ brand
  management/ product management?
• Why do you think marketing (etc.) is a good fit
  for you?
• Why are you interested in our company? What do
  you know about it?
• What would you contribute to our organization?
  Why should we hire you?
• What personal or professional abilities are you
  most proud of?

23
Classic Questions General

• What is your most significant professional
  accomplishment?
• Describe 1-2 of your most important personal
  accomplishments. Discuss the hurdles that made
  them challenging.
• Tip these two questions are big for Clorox
  they use them to look for results-orientation
• How do your co-workers/friends/student group
  members describe you?

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Classic QuestionsCommunication Persuasion

• Give an example of a situation where you had to
  persuade a person of a different point of view to
  agree with an issue
• Describe a time when you had to use several
  approaches to persuade someone about an issue

25
Classic Questions Leadership

• Describe a situation in which you had a conflict
  w/ another person and how you resolved it.
• Give an example of when you successfully
  supervised a diverse group of people towards a
  difficult goal. What skills did you use? What
  did you learn?
• Describe a situation when you had to give
  negative feedback to a co-worker or team member.
• All of us have been in situations where we
  assigned work to other people and they didnt
  follow through. Tell me about a situation like
  that, why it happened, how you handled it and
  what you learned.

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Classic Questions Teamwork

• Give an example of how you dealt with a bad team
  situation.
• Describe a situation when you were able to build
  team spirit in a time of low morale.
• Tell me about the toughest group you ever had to
  work with. What made the group so tough? What
  did you do?

27
Classic Questions Decision Making

• Whats the most difficult decision youve ever
  made? What were the consequences? What did you
  learn?
• Describe a situation when you had to make a
  decision without all the information at hand.

28
Classic Questions Integrity

• Describe an ethical dilemma which youve had to
  face during your career. How did you resolve the
  issue?
• Describe your character.
• Have you ever been asked to do something that
  wasnt right? What did you do?

29
Classic Questions The Company

• What are our brands? What is your favorite
  product in our line and why?
• What have you learned about our organization?
• What questions do you have about our company?
• What is the most important thing you would look
  for in an employer?

30
Classic Questions Creativity

• Give me an example of a time when you had to use
  creativity to solve a problem.
• Describe a situation in which you developed a
  unique solution to a problem.
• Give me an example of some new ideas youve had
  recently.
• Describe yourself as a brand.

31
Classic Questions Analytical Thinking

• Walk me through a situation in which you had to
  research and analyze the results for one of your
  projects.
• Tell me about a project where you had to do a lot
  of numerical or financial analysis.
• Tell me about a project that best demonstrates
  your analytical skills.

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Classic Questions Marketing

• Whats the best commercial youve seen in the
  last few months and why? Do you believe its
  effective? Tell me about an ineffective
  commercial. Why is it ineffective?
• Name some of the most recent new products
  launched by a consumer products company in the
  last six months. Which one impressed you? Why?
  Do you believe it will be successful in the
  marketplace?
• How would you describe the personality of Brand
  X?
• What is a brand to you? Why does it matter?
• Here is a print ad. Please evaluate it for me.

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Yet More Questions

• What are the attributes of a successful marketing
  campaign?
• Give me a specific example of a time you solved a
  problem creatively?
• How do you motivate others, particularly those
  over whom you have no direct authority?
• Give an example of an innovative solution to a
  business problem.
• Pretend today is your first day at work as a
  brand manager for Brand X. What are the ten most
  important questions you would ask.
• Give me a 30-second commercial about yourself.