Latest Brand Manager Interview Preparation Guide

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My strengths are good communication, analytical and client servicing skills and flexibility to any kind of environment.

My weakness is diversified concentration.

I position as a brand by means of catering to the mass market (Flexibility) with assortment of product categories (diversified concentration) across geographies(flexibility) with high quality product standards to the consumers.

When I read a resume, I want to see big accomplishments beyond your work experience or school. Football, chess, travelling the world or charity work etc. I want to hear your story and your pride come through. Great Marketers accomplish things, and I want to know that you have a history of accomplishments. Don't tell just what you did, tell me what you ACCOMPLISHED!

To me this is one of the most important sections. It demonstrates how engaged you are in the process. The quality of your questions will help to separate you. Have five great questions done ahead of time, ask about 2-3 each interview. Ask deep questions, not surface questions.Turn each answer into a conversation starter.

Great marketers are constantly pushing themselves to improve. That starts with your own personal assessment. I want to see that you have thought about it and now see a better solution. It also puts you under a bit of unexpected pressure to see how you handle that.

The potential for brand management will help the company to promote its image in the society, differentiate its offerings from competitors, devise marketing communication activities, protect its product features legally etc.

I want to see if you can make it happen. This will show your leadership, selling skills, and willingness to push. A great Marketer can get what they want.

The major responsibilities of a brand manager are:

► To oversee the overall performance of the brand and will be a single point of contact for overall profitability of the brand on a whole.
► To involve from budgeting to product development inclusive of pricing, packaging, promotion to enhance brand image of the company
► To design market research studies with MR agencies and utilize the results to take better business decisions regarding market assessment of the company's products
► To be involved with ad agencies to coordinate advertising, event management and marketing communication activities
► And also, be familiar to handle overseas operations and willing to travel overseas in short notice

This is a very thick question with many issues, especially adding in the global issue. I want to see you think through those issues and layer those issues into your answer. How do you handle the differences between North America and the Third World? How important is profitability vs R&D vs compassion? How would you leverage government, key influencers and where would that fit into your answer. Great marketers can handle ambiguity and there is a lot within this case.

The components of brand positioning are :

► Target audience
► Category/Industry/Market
► Unique selling proposition

I always took something in the pop culture news and asked how you would handle it. I was looking to see how curious you are and how you could take something with very little subject matter expertise and put together a plan. A great Marketer has a curiosity and can form opinions quickly. This lets me see your thinking. Pop culture is a great area that goes beyond books.

It really doesn't matter what it was, but how far did you push yourself out of your comfort zone to find the creative solution.Your passion for your idea should come through.

Brand positioning is a process in which marketers would like to occupy the rational space in the minds of the target customers against competition.

The following are the basis for positioning a brand:
► Target audience
► Frame of reference
► Point of differentiation
► Reasons

Most marketers suck at finance and it will eventually limit your career. At some level in marketing, you have to be good at running the P&L, so I'd rather find out now. You better have your story tight because your answer will be questioned one or two more levels to see if you really know your stuff. Great Marketers can tell stories with analysis. I'm going to challenge every aspect of your story.

A brand is the set of product or service attributes imbibed in the consumer's mind in the form of a name, symbol, logo, design and trademark.

The importance of brand management is:
► Product differentiation from competitors
► Building corporate image
► Creating bundle of benefits for different product categories
► Attract and retain the most loyal customers

► What is the one thing you would change about the company you work for today?
► What is your biggest disappointment with this company?
► What distinguishes your organization from the other packaged good companies?
► Is your organization growing in just a few areas, or just a few select categories?
► What would you do differently if you were going through the recruitment process out of school again?
► Among your company's marketing managers, what is the balance between internally developed and outside hires?
► In two years, with a good track record, where do you see me in the company?
► Describe the training process and the skills the company wants every manager to have. Is there a process in place to ensure that these skills are taught? How often is that process reviewed?
► What unexpected things have happened to you here at this company?
► Why did you decide to join this company? Have your expectations been met? Why or why not?
► Tell me about a typical day here.
► What is the most exciting thing about your job?

► "Let's say I'm an anthropologist. How would you explain the importance of brand management to me?"
► "Everyone lies on their resume. Where on your resume did you lie? Come on, there must be something!"
► "Which continent would you like to be and why?"
► "How would you plot brand management companies on a perceptual map?"
► "Give me three reasons why we should NOT hire you. Then, give me three reasons why we should hire the person who's interviewing AFTER you."
► "Is money important to you?"
► "What were your favorite cartoons as a child? How did they shape your character?"
► "How would you react if we fired you after a week on the job?"
► "Wow, I really like your shoes. can you take one off and show me what the lining is made of?"
► "What were you thinking when you were sitting outside waiting of me to call you into my office for this interview?"
► If you were a piece of art, what kind of art would you be?
► "I believe that an occasional demonstration of anger on the job is healthy. how do you choose to express anger at work?"
► "Okay, tell me the truth. The fact is, you don't really want this job, do you?"

► What do you do in your free time?
► What has been the most useful criticism you have ever received?
► Describe the biggest crisis in your life or your career.
► What is your biggest disappointment in life?
► What is your greatest weakness?
► What motivates you best?
► What kind of boss gets the best work out of you?
► Do you feel that your grades at school accurately reflect your abilities?
► How well do you take criticism? What's the most painful criticism you have ever received?
► School can be stressful. What aspect of school is most stressful for you? Why? How do you respond?
► Tell me about your most spectacular failure.
► Tell me about a time when you weren't very pleased with your performance.
► What are the highest-pressure situations you have been under in recent years? How did you cope with them?

► Are you a team leader or follower? Give me examples of your teamwork style.
► Discuss examples of how you effectively dealt with difficult individuals in your workplace.
► Tell me about a time you were on a team and had to involve other team members in decisions and actions. What was your approach?
► Discuss an incident at work where you were angry at someone or at a situation. How did you handle it?
► Describe a situation in which you were able to build team spirit during a time of low morale.
► When making decisions, how much consideration do you give the needs/feelings of team members? Give examples.
► Describe a situation in which other team members views conflicted with your own views. What did you do?
► Describe a time when you intervened to get your team back on track because they couldn't resolve or decide on an issue.
► Describe a situation in which you wished you'd acted differently with someone in your work group. What happened?
► Tell me about a time when you worked with someone who wasn't as cooperative as you needed him/her to be. What did you do?
► Have you ever had difficulty in getting along with co-workers? How did you handle the situation?
► Tell me about some of the toughest groups with which you've had to work. What made the group tough? What did you do?
► Describe the most effective techniques you've used to encourage team members to contribute their talents to the team's function or goal. Give me a specific example of a time when you used one of these techniques.
► Have you ever been in a group with an unproductive person? How did you handle the situation?

► Describe a situation in which you had a conflict with another person in a corporate or school setting, and how you resolved it.
► Everyone has some development opportunities within his/her leadership style. What are yours? What have you done to overcome them?
► Accomplishing team goals requires that all team members fulfill their responsibilities. Tell me about a situation in which you have helped to clarify team members' roles and responsibilities.
► Discuss some situations in which you successfully supervised a diverse group of people towards a difficult goal. What skills did you employ in supervising them? What did you learn?
► How would your subordinates describe you as a leader? How would they describe your weaknesses?
► Describe your leadership style. Do you believe in giving others a free rein, or do you prefer close supervision?
► Describe a situation in which you had to lead a group towards a goal despite difficult opposition from others.
► Sometimes team get off track when working toward a specific project or goal. Describe a time when this happened and you had great difficulty in getting your team back on track. What did you do?
► Describe a situation in which you had to provide constructive feedback to a co-worker or team member.
► Have you held leadership roles in extracurricular activities? How did you lead? Give me an example.
► Team members don't always agree about how to get things done. Tell me about a situation in which you had to resolve disagreements among team members. What did you do?
► All of us have been in situations where we assigned work to other people and they didn't follow through. Can you tell me about one of these? Why did it happen? What did you learn from that experience?
► There are many obstacles that can prevent a team from accomplishing its goals. Describe a time when you were able to remove obstacles so your team could achieve a goal.
► Think of a time when you had a major role in developing a team that became very successful. What did you do to contribute to the team success?
► When have you inspired someone to work hard to do a better job? How did you do that?

► What is the best commercial you've seen in the last few months and why do believe that is effective?
► Briefly describe a marketing plan for yourself.
► Name some of the most recent new products launched by a consumer products company in the last 6 months? Which of these impressed you? Why? Do you believe that they will be successful in the marketplace?
► Let's pretend that today is your first day at work as a brand manager on Brand X. What are the 10 most important questions you would ask to find out most about the brand?
► If you had your choice among all the brands/products in the United States, which would you want to market? Why? Which would you not want to market? Why?

► Discuss a project which best demonstrates your analytical skills.
► Describe a complicated business analysis issue you have had to deal with on your job or at school, how did you identify or gain a better understanding of the problem?
► Which type of thinking is more important in marketing - analytical or creative thinking? Why?
► Describe a situation in which you identified key problems early on in a project and were able to avert a crisis.
► Describe the steps involved in analyzing a brand's share declines. Why is each step important?
► Walk me through a situation in which you had to research and analyze the results for one of your projects.
► We've all had occasions when we were asked for ideas in solving work issues in which we didn't have much knowledge or experience. What have you done when this has happened?
► Tell me about a time when you had to analyze or interpret numerical or financial information.
► Describe a project, situation or assignment that challenged your business analysis skills. How did you handle the situation?
► What information did you use in choosing your school? And how did you decide to eventually go to that school?

► What ideas have you developed that were creative or innovative?
► It's difficult to develop new ideas every day, so sometimes it's important to combine existing ideas creatively to seize a new opportunity. Tell me about a time when you did this successfully.
► Sell me this pen.
► Describe a situation in which you worked with others to develop a unique and resourceful solution to a difficult problem. What was your role?
► Tell me about a time when your standard approach to problem solving didn't produce the desired solution. What did you do?
► In your last job, what did you do different from your predecessors? Why?
► How important is creativity in your personal life? How do you express this?
► Did you express any new ideas to your boss in the last 6 months of work? What were these ideas and how did your boss respond to them?
► We all know that some problems just don't have a solution. Tell me about a problem you tried to solve but couldn't. What solutions did you try? How did you come up with these solutions.

► What are our brands or services?
► What have you learned about our organization?
► What have you learned about our organization?
► What have you heard about our organization that concerned you?
► What's the most important thing you would look for in an employer?
► How did you structure your research about our organization?
► What was your first impression about our company?
► What did you think of our corporate presentation?

► Describe an ethical dilemma which you had to face during your career. How did you resolve the issue?
► Describe your character.
► Have you ever been involved in a situation in which a co-worker showed dishonesty on the job? If so, how did you deal with that situation?
► Sometimes strict company rules make it very difficult to get our work done. Can you think of a time when you had to bend a rule to get your work done more efficiently?
► Have you ever been asked to do something that you didn't think was right? What did you do?
► Have you ever been in a meeting when your boss said something to make him/her or you "look good" and you thought the statement was inaccurate? What did you do?

► Discuss examples of situations when you had to persuade a person of a different point of view to agree with you on an issue.
► What are some of the best ideas you ever sold to a superior or peer? What were your approaches?
► Describe a time when you had to use several approaches because your initial approach failed to persuade others.
► Describe your most satisfying experience in attempting to gain upper management's support of an idea or proposal. What was the situation, and how did that turn out?
► What oral presentations have you made? What were the most successful? Why?
► Have you ever done any public speaking? Tell me about one of these events.
► Give an example of when you made a presentation to an uninterested or hostile audience.
► What are examples of the most difficult writing assignments you've ever had? Why?
► Describe a time when you had to convince someone, who didn't directly report to you, to do something they didn't want to do.
► Please compare your verbal communication skills to your writing skills. Which skill has most strongly enhanced your career progress? Why? What are specific strengths and weaknesses of your verbal and written skills?