marketing interviews and chapter
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1) Marketing Chapter
a) A Marketing Story:
Becoming the largest Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in the
world and three times the size of its nearest competitor didn’t happen overnight for
Godaddy.com. In 2001, Godaddy.com was the same size as its two nearest competitors, but by
2009 it was thirty times the size of one competitor and three and a half times the size of the
other. How did this happen? In 2005, the company essentially bet its existence on an
advertisement during the Super Bowl and got the consumers attention by being “trashy,” “edgy,”
“sleazy,” and “crude.” This marketing strategy certainly worked for this company and led to
Godaddy.com being the number 1 ICANN provider. The CEO, Bob Parsons, refers to their
marketing as “GoDaddy-esque" which he describes as "fun, edgy and a bit inappropriate,”1 but,
when someone needs to find out if a domain name is available, Godaddy.com has the solution to
that problem.
b) Definition of Marketing:
Marketing is the process of promoting the sale of goods or services; it is usually associated
with the creation of value for customers. There are multiple disciplines that fall under the overall
umbrella of marketing; public relations, advertising, account management, events, sports, and
branding. Universities market programs to prospective students in the hope that the students (or
their parents) will ultimately commit resources to the university in the form of tuition. From a
marketing perspective, however, the same techniques are used as would be used by a furniture
store that was advertising a sofa.
1 ^ Parsons, Bob (2007-03-30). "Our GoDaddy-esque marketing. Why I keep it edgy. Our 2nd
GoDaddy-esque video cast.". BobParsons.me. http://www.bobparsons.me/GoDaddy-
esqueMarketing.html. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
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1) In general, business schools teach three main acronyms in marketing classes: NPD,
the 4 P’s, and PLC.
a) New product development, or NPD, details the various stages of how to bring a new
product to market. The techniques taught by business schools require that managers focus
on are: 1) idea generation, 2) idea screening, 3) business analysis, 4) product
development, 5) product testing, 6) test marketing, and, ultimately, 7) commercialization
of the product. Without following these steps, it will be difficult to convince a company
to make the required investment to bring a new product to market.
b) The “4 P’s” are product, promotion, price, and placement. Categorizing products in this
framework was originally introduced in 1940 by Neil H. Borden, who was a professor at
Harvard in the 1960’s. The 4 P’s combined define the “marketing mix”2 with which a
company attracts its consumer. For example, car tires would be the “product” and “Buy
3, get one free” is the “promotion.” The tire manufacturer sets the “price” at or below its
closest competitors while partnering for “placement” to have the tire be the choice for
Nascar.
2 The term "marketing mix" became popularized after Neil H. Borden published his 1964
article, The Concept of the Marketing Mix
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c) The product lifecycle or PLC describes the phases of a product’s life: introduction,
growth, maturity, and the decline phase. 3
3 www.mrdashboard.com/BCG_Matrix.html
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This technique is used by marketing managers in order to gain a better understanding of where
the product is in regard to revenue generation. Many managers use this for competitive product
analysis as well.
In the introduction stage, a product is launched into the market. To stimulate growth of
sales/revenue, and in order to heighten awareness of the product in question, use of advertising
may be high. For the growth stage, sales are increasing, which may stimulate more marketing
communications to sustain sales. Usually in this stage of the product’s lifecycle, competitors
begin to notice the product and attempt to enter the same market because they want to capture
the apparent high level profits that the industry is producing. During the maturity phase of a
product, sales start to level off. With an increased number of similar products from competitors,
firms resort to price decreases or sales promotions to entice buyers away from competitors. In the
final decline phase, revenues decline and demand for the product tapers off. At this point, the
firm may opt to discontinue manufacturing of the product.
3. Marketing Jobs for the recent MBA graduate:
There are three general marketing categories that recent MBA’s typically consider, including:
Associate Brand Manager, Account Executive, and Market Research/Strategy Analyst.
1) Associate Brand Manager: This position reports to the Vice President of Marketing, Brand
Manager, or Marketing Director, and assists in the development and execution of marketing
plans. An Associate Brand Manager is typically responsible for devising marketing strategies for
the brand, creating a positive brand image, participating in ad campaigns, coordinating with the
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creative department, looking into the budgeting aspects and positioning a brand in the right
manner. 4
a) Kimberly-Clark Associate Brand Manager Job Description
Job responsibilities- The Associate Brand Manager is responsible for the evolution of sales of
one or more products or brands of the company. The manager analyzes sales, information,
projections, and other meaningful data and prepares forecasts on market evolution and the
company’s products. He or she also coordinates promotions and advertising efforts of products
or brands under his/her responsibility.5 An MBA is preferred.
2) Account Executive: An Account Executive may work in several different industries,
securing clients and making sales. A background in sales, advertising and client management can
be beneficial to individuals in this career. He or she must be able to build and maintain customer
relations and have great organizational skills. Being responsible for looking after several of the
company's clients, he or she must keep the company’s client relationships in good repair and
attempt to increase the amount of business a company does with that client. This means that the
Account Executive must be familiar with all the company's services and products and ultimately
be able to sell them to the client.
In addition to working on existing accounts, Account Executives may be required to find new
customers and clients. This can involve cold-calling or prospecting, as well as attending
seminars, conventions and trade shows for networking. Account Executives generally make
presentations to potential customers in person.
a) Kellogg Company Account Executive Job Description
4 http://www.marketingcrossing.com/video/2391/Associate-Brand-Manager-Jobs/
5 http://www.retailgigs.com/job.asp?id=22349570&aff=5B69D171-E6DF-4407-9864-
3092BB91A6F2
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“The Account Executive is responsible for developing this customer’s annual business. By
offering increased consumer value through promotional programs tied to volume and margin
goals, building long term customer relations and leads market / local specific business plans.
Develop account level plans to impact shelf space, merchandising, advertising, promotions and
pricing. Identify opportunities, develop ideas, and deliver sales presentations/business reviews to
maximize merchandising opportunities. Forecast sales annually and on a period basis as part of
the integrated business process. Track the execution of objectives to insure volume and profit
targets are met… and perform pre- and post-promotion analysis and revises future programs as
necessary. Communicate with the Retail team, regarding account cooperation, ad dates, display
dates and results. Manage assigned trade and selling expense budget to insure that all expense
goals are achieved.”6
3) Market Research/Strategy Analyst: Companies do not guess what people want and
how much they are willing to pay for goods and services. Hours, weeks, and sometimes months
of preparation and research are needed to make informed decisions on pricing, location, and
identity of the end customer. The Analyst is responsible for gathering this type of analytical
information in order to help the company make informed decisions. They can obtain this data
through research, the use of consultants, segmenting of competitors and surveying their customer
base. Some of the surveys are designed to identify what people think about potential products or
pricing. After reviewing the data, the Analyst draws conclusions about how a product should be
made, distributed and priced. He or she then provides this information to management.
Using the information, management will make one of several possible decisions. For example,
they may decide to open a new retail outlet, change a product's price, or launch a brand-new
6http://remotesalesjobs.com/job/46?
id=6263&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed
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product. An Analyst must have strong quantitative skills. A bachelor's degree is usually required
for entry into this field and a Master’s degree is preferred.
a) Caremark-Market Research Analyst Job Description
Responsible for conducting market research projects in support of corporate goals. Propose
appropriate research design based on identified business objectives. Design screeners, discussion
guides, and questionnaires. Manage data collection, perform analyses, prepare summaries and
present research findings with minimal supervision. Develop actionable recommendations for
internal clients. Manage market research suppliers for both qualitative and quantitative projects.
Consult with internal clients to help determine and prioritize market research needs. Collaborate
with CVS Caremark Market Research team members to share and optimize insights gathered
across the company.7
INTERVIEWS:
Marketing Interview #1:
Demographic Data: Marketing Associate or Associate Product Director
I work in a product group of a global food and beverage service provider - in analytics and
budgeting. This entails more analytics than I had anticipated. Occasionally now, and as I progress
as an employee, I will be permitted to develop more strategic options for the product.
What is your professional background?
After college I worked for two years in Advertising as an Account Executive in branding for a
multi-national hotel chain and then returned to my undergraduate university to obtain my MBA. In
business school, I was the President of the AMA Club on campus.
7 Indeed.com/expired position
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What kind of experiences or help did you have during graduate school that assisted you in your job search?
With the economy being so bad, the career center was really trying to help as much as they could.
They reached out to all alumni in marketing and specifically in second tier Consumer Product
Goods companies. My school is not considered strong in the marketing field. Many students go
there for supply chain or to specialize in human resources. The school is working hard to make
marketing a leading discipline.
How familiar were you with the company before your interview process?
I started finding out about the company as I was preparing for the interview. Other than my
occasional use of their products, I didn’t have a great deal of knowledge of the company.
Did you know other individuals in the company?
Technically I didn’t have an “in” with a current employee, so I contacted my career center. They
arranged me to speak with a fellow alum who was two years ahead of me and works for another
division of the company.
Interview for this job:
How did you obtain the interview?
The company actually located me on Monster.com. I used about ten job boards but was not
impressed with any of them. I did like Careerbuilder.com, which was more geared to e-mail blasts
that sent me geographic-specific marketing positions that I might be interested in.
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What was your preparation process for the Interview? (Books, websites, practice, etc.)
A lot of my company preparation was done via Internet research. I didn’t really do a whole bunch of
company specific research until I knew what companies I had obtained interviews with. I did use a
generic marketing guidebook that the career center had provided me to get an overview of what to
expect during marketing interviews. It was about marketing roles, typical questions, and
interviewing.
Once I obtained the job interview I changed my strategy to one-on-one interview practice sessions
with friends. I would rely on feedback from other people on the answers that I gave and the skill-
sets that I portrayed.
What was the format of your interview? (Individual sessions, multi-rounds, large groups of students)
It was a fairly standardized interview format. The initial screening was done by phone with the
human resources contact. After the initial call, I was invited to the headquarters to meet with two
senior marketing professionals. After the second round, I was supposed to go back to the office to
meet with a senior marketing director, but he ended up wanting to speak with me by phone. The call
with him was more of a final blessing than anything else.
What key questions stood out for you in the interview?
My interview process was fairly easy. I remember at the NSHMBA and the NAWMBA (National
Association Women’s MBA) conferences they drilled you on hard questions. Before the
conferences I spent a lot of time working on my answers and making sure that I was prepared for
anything that could come my way.
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Since my current company found me on Monster.com, somehow I fell outside the MBA candidate
pool and was considered as a regular job applicant. I felt that the questions were very easy. This
probably is not the typical way in the door for many candidates, but it worked for me.
Here are a few of the questions that I recall:
• Tell me about a project where you came to a conclusion that no one ever came to before. How did
you gain support for your solution among your team members?
•
Tell me about a project that you worked on where you had to think outside the box.
• Walk me through your resume.
• They had one case question -which was fairly generic.
• Why do you want to work here?
How did you answer these questions?
I was taught to use the STAR (Situation, Task or Threat, Action, Result) format to answer any
question. I also relied heavily on my network to help me understand what skill-set the company was
looking for. I found out they wanted the employee to be hard-working and adaptable, to think
outside the box, and to take initiative. For example, if I wanted to convey my use of analytics, I
would answer with an analytical and quantitative approach.
Post-interview reflections:
Looking back at the interview, is there anything you would have done differently?
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Before interviewing I would learn at least a few computer software programs geared to marketing.
Some of the statistical software packages are standardized throughout the industry and these
programs came up a number of times during my interviews. Without any knowledge of the
computer programs, I was left with giving fairly generic responses; I am adaptable and a quick
learner. Also, if I had more time I would have talked to more people about each company I was
interviewing with.
Why do you think the company hired you?
The people with whom I work said they hired me because I was one of the most prepared people
they interviewed. I was very proactive in learning about the company and went above and beyond in
my preparation. The culture at my company is that they want people to be a step ahead and at the
top of their game.
They also saw me as being genuinely interested. I was not expecting to hear that as feedback. They
appreciated that I was not just interested in marketing generically, but specifically working for them
in marketing. The reason I think they told me this afterwards was that my attitude contrasted sharply
with other applicants, who were less informed about and less eager to work for this company. Or I
could be way off and the other candidates just sucked.
What are the three most important characteristics that your firm is looking for?
Genuinely interested in working with the company, smart and quick on your feet. Somewhat
surprisingly, they really look for people who are creative. I had at least a couple of creative
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questions and one example I can recall was: Tell me about a creative solution that you came up with
to a problem. The question was to gage your outside-the-box thinking.
What is the best way to get hired at your firm?
I am an advocate of having my resume in a keyword searchable format. I would list out core
competencies and then use adjectives to describe my skills: adaptable, branding, and management. I
think that the reason that HR found me was because they were running scans to look for certain
words.
Use any connection that you can come up with. Look up the people who you are interviewing with
on LinkedIn. Determine the school they went to and find any other commonalities. Use this
information during the interviews by mentioning these if you can, whether school, sports or some
other area.
Not that many schools advocate this, but I also had a mini three sentence executive summary at the
top of my resume and it showed exactly what type of role I was looking for.
Do you have any advice for MBA students; job related or not?
There was a divide between people in my MBA program of being either job-focused or grade-
focused. I was grade-focused. At the end of the day, I should have chosen to be more job-focused
because I went to business school to be able to get the awesome job that I always wanted.
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Be prepared as you can be for interviews because you have no shot at the position if you are not
prepared. Reach out to as many people as you can: friends, family, alumni and current students. You
don’t need to be best friends with people at your top choices, but it helps you identify how the
company is positioning itself. I followed two large consumer product companies on Twitter and
joined both of their Facebook pages. It let me get an idea of what they were doing and how they
wanted to portray the brand in public. Social media is huge for me because it is a direct link to
marketing. This may not work for an investment banker, but it really is what I wanted to do, so it fit
well for me. I was able to use it as research and I could bring it up during interviews. In every
interview they asked “if I had any questions,” I would plug in the examples I saw so they knew that
I was doing a lot of research above what would be listed in the 10K.
I even resorted to looking at product displays at Target and Walgreens to get an idea of how they
were placed.
One outside-the-box recommendation that I have is you can easily follow companies on Twitter.
For example I followed the CEO of my current company. I would then check out YouTube.com for
their latest marketing commercials. All of these things take time, but are well worth the effort.
This recommendation only applies to the marketing groups and keeping up to date on the trends is
essential. I did this by reading Brandweek and Ad Age. I would take notes on anything that I came
across which pertained to companies that I was focused on.
Take a deep breath: some of it is luck.
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Take Away Points
• Use buzzwords on your resume if you are going to post it online.
• Follow companies that you are interested in on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Networking! Never go to an interview without knowing what kind of questions to expect.
• Ask yourself: why did you go to an MBA program? If it was to obtain your dream job, then you
should focus more on that than the grades.
Find key characteristics that the company wants and play up those points whenever you speak with
someone at the company. If they want an analytical person, then answer the questions with numbers and
follow the STAR format for answering every question.
Marketing Interview #2:
Demographic Data: Strategy Analyst and Account Executive in the MBA Leadership Program
specializing in marketing.
I work for a global airline company in a functional marketing role. The position ultimately rotates
through multiple different areas. In his current role, he acts as an account manager in co-branding
portfolios. Initially he thought it was more services marketing. Much of the position involves
negotiating contracts and what kind of branding ideas they will offer to our cardholders. It is a very
large mix of strategy and marketing. Specifically, the program is set up to have approximately one
year rotations through five separate areas. He believes the rotations will most likely switch every
one to two years.
What type of work are you doing?
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Service marketing in the credit card group. A lot of the work is contract negotiations. I spend the
bulk of my time assisting the legal team.
What is your professional background?
I graduated from a leading liberal arts school with a BA in Economics. During school I interned
with a think-tank and got interested in economic consulting and forecasting. After my
undergraduate program, I joined an economic consulting firm before going to get my MBA.
What kind of experiences or help did you have during graduate school that assisted you in your job search?
Overall I believe that the marketing courses helped build my resume because a lot of my previous
work experience was not in marketing and I wanted to change career paths.
Besides the academic portion, I was very active on campus with the American Marketing
Association (AMA) Club. I felt that the AMA connection positioned me to get in the door because
the firms I was targeting were in marketing.
At school I spent a lot of time finding out about companies that interested me. I took full advantage
of the resources that were available on campus. I read the 10 K (Annual Report) for each company
and then I would network my way into the company.
I worked really hard on fine-tuning my resume and personalizing it for each targeted company.
How familiar were you with the company before your interview process?
I was very prepared for the interviews because I never went to an interview without first trying to
get in touch with someone on the inside.
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For my current role, I asked the Human Resources contact if they could get me in touch with
someone that could help me get more information about the specific job for which I was applying. I
had met this Human Resources person while attending the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s
Conference (NSHMBA). This contact offered to get me in touch with people who were in different
areas within the company. The HR person put me in contact with the same person that I ended up
interviewing with. Having that initial connection was a huge asset, considering I had already spoken
with this person and had a good idea of the skill-set they were looking for.
My only apprehension with telling this story is that we might have been accidentally paired together
for the interview and they did not know we had already spoken to each other. You should consider
that this initial conversation might be a potential interview. I was looking to gather as much
information as possible for the upcoming interview at the headquarters. It also was a great way to
convince the hiring managers that I would make a great fit at the company because I knew what
they were looking for as a potential new hire. The informational interviews were a crucial part of
me being hired.
Did you know other individuals in the company?
Initially I didn’t know anyone but used my lack of connections as a way to approach the Human
Resources person about potential people that I could speak with. The networking really paid off for
me. Even if I didn’t know anyone at a company, I would try to reach out to anyone who might know
of someone on the inside.
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Interview for this job
How did you obtain the interview?
I obtained the interview at NSHMBA by speaking with the Human Resources recruiter at the event
and then followed up with a note.
What was your preparation process for the Interview? (Books, websites, practice, etc.)
Networked with others and practiced.
I would reach out to anyone at my school that could have previously interviewed with the company:
Alumni and fellow students. I spoke to one alumnus who shared his experience with going through
the interview process. He told me about the quantitative type questions to expect and how best to
prepare for them.
I think that, as soon as you find out about a potential interview, you should immediately reach out to
your career center. The more prepared you are the more likely you are to succeed. Your school’s
career center may know of alumni or other people who went through the same process.
I felt I had a key advantage over other students because I would always ask the Human Resources
contact what types of things to expect during the interview. I also would ask this same question to
people who had previously gone through the process. In my experience, only a small fraction of
them wouldn’t divulge any data about the interview process. Each time I asked this question it gave
me vital facts: types of things they are looking for, case question examples, who the hiring manager
was, what skills to play up and what not to say.
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How did you answer these questions?
Follow a structure either from a book or your own outline. Once you choose a method for case
questions, make sure to cover each point whenever answering these questions.
I felt it was better to just slow down towards the end of the allotted time and circle back to a few
areas that I wanted to cover to show that I at least had considered the other possibilities. They never
expect you to answer the question fully.
Post-interview reflections:
Looking back at the interview, is there anything you would have done differently?
Got hired, so no. What worked for me was networking. I think that it is much easier to ask someone
for help when you are a student, so use that to your advantage. Keep in touch with anyone you meet
during school that worked at companies that you may be interested in. If I had more time, I would
have learned more about the company.
Why do you think the company hired you?
They hired me because I was interested in Marketing and Brand Management. I tried to come across
as being creative and taking initiative. I worked really hard in school taking initiative and getting
things started.
Having personal connections through networking helped a lot. I tried to make it sound like I would
be a great fit for a leadership program and it helped to have insiders and to know what the company
was looking for. I also made it very clear to them that I was willing to relocate, which is a big
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concern for the company, since the location of the headquarters may not be ideal for some
candidates.
What are the three most important characteristics that your firm is looking for?
Good analytics and to challenge the status quo. They value MBA’s a lot, but there is an ingrained
and conservative culture. MBA’s come in and shake things up, and the company benefits in the long
run. MBA’s get a lot of freedom to run with projects, but at the same time they are expected to be
problem solvers. I had expected to find other MBA’s in this program to be very competitive but was
surprised to find how collegial a work environment it was.
What is the best way to get hired at your firm?
Show interest and knowledge of the company leadership programs in Marketing.
Do you have any advice for MBA students; job related or not?
Networking!!! Approach alumni at your school, reached out to them at any means necessary. Take a
deep breath and relax while you are at school because you won’t have all the time to socialize and
read once you enter the corporate world. Use the MBA as a great opportunity to branch out and
learn some new things. Read the paper and network with other students.
Takeaway points
• Networking, especially making contacts through Human Resources.
• Always ask what type of interview to expect. You will be surprised at how much people are willing
to share, which makes preparation that much easier.
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• Taking initiative in things that are correlated with your job search: for me that was the AMA club. It
is much easier to sell yourself and show that you are excited about the opportunity if you are actively doing
it in your free time outside of the company.