Marketing Communication Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

Here is your chance to market yourself. You know what the interviewer is looking for as you will have done your homework so now is the time to pull out an example that shows you have it. This is also your opportunity to differentiate yourself from other candidates.

For any marketing interview you must familiarize yourself with what the company does and it's successful products/services. This will allow you to identify its appeal and then describe how the marketing strategy has worked. An example might be Walker's crisps tasting nice and through the good marketing strategy are now also perceived as good fun which is obviously important when one of their biggest markets is children.

Ex are going the extra mile, honesty, teamwork, etc. to check if your values are aligned to their values

Coming up with new and effective ways to market a product in such a tight economy is a tough challenge and these days customers have more power than ever. It is getting more difficult for marketing initiatives to effectively meet these new customer demands. Keep these and other factors in mind when tackling this question, relate your personal experience of the challenges you have encountered and discuss the creative ways in which you handled them.

When answering this question make sure to show how cultural, social, personal and psychological factors all impact consumer behavior. Provide an example of a marketing campaign or project you developed and how you used these four key factors to develop and optimize your project.

An interviewer will ask his question in order to assess how you handle a failed plan, as this is quite inevitable. It is important that you are able to recognize the key reasons why a strategy went wrong and what you learnt from the experience.
Campaigns may fail for many different reasons, including: poor research and groundwork, poor planning and follow-through of objectives and goals or ineffective communication. Be open about why the campaign failed, take accountability and focus on what you learnt.

Be specific when answering questions about your accomplishments with other companies. By simply stating, "I ran several online marketing campaigns" does not adequately show what you can do for the company.
Provide an example of a marketing campaign (either your own or someone else's) that you consider to have been very successful.
As mentioned above, marketing demands a lot in terms of creativity. When answering questions such as this, it is important to make sure you include as much creative thinking in your response as there was in the actual project. When discussing a campaign that you felt was successful, make sure to include why you feel it was a success, what contributed to making it a success and point out key tactics that you can identify with, which made the campaign successful.

In times of economic strain, this question is most relevant for a marketing professional. As marketing is one of the most important functions within a company, when finances are tight a marketing budget, which may once have been limitless can be squeezed down to close to nothing. This is yet another area which will require a creative answer that also highlights your planning and ambition in terms of working under pressure.

The following are the type of vendors to deal with Marcom activities:
☛ Web designing company
☛ Creative agency
☛ Printing press vendor
☛ Advertising agency
☛ Public relation agency
☛ Digital media partners etc.

☛ Reach
☛ Frequency
☛ Increase in sales
☛ Improving the company image
☛ Brand and advertising awareness
☛ Cost per thousand
☛ Change in market share etc.

One of the main responsibilities of a Marcom person is to ensure the organization and product/brand image to be good in front of the eyes of the consumers. On a timely basis, PR should be used to create awareness to the public in relation to the events happening in the company such as new product launch, product relaunch, sponsoring consumer events, participation in trade shows and exhibitions etc.

☛ Allocate required manpower to support the company's stall
☛ Working out the logistics plan on a whole
☛ Train the employees in customer service skills to enhance the maximum footfalls in the stall
☛ Collect the customer's information like name, address, phone number, email id etc. for CRM
☛ Measure and monitor the effectiveness of the event using simple feedback surveys
☛ Document the happenings during the event participation to overcome the gaps for future events in order to get the maximum out of it.
☛ Last but least, showcase the events participation with help of media planning for wider reach by means of product review, press release both online and offline etc.
☛ Negotiate stall rates with the organizing partner and finalize
☛ Evaluate the feasibility of internal events budget to justify the participation
☛ Prepare a blue print highlighting the outcomes and measurable objectives out of participating in this event
☛ Getting a formal approval from the authorities to sign off

Using online media for Marcom activities is to ensure the maximum reach of the target audience at lower costs and results in increased consumer engagement. And also, it is easy to monitor and measure the results of online media usage. Internet is considered to be the one of the most effective tool in today's competitive business world.

The following are the steps taken to participate in an event like exhibition or trade show:
☛ Identifying the participation of target audience and know-how of the events
☛ Negotiate stall rates with the organizing partner and finalize
☛ Evaluate the feasibility of internal events budget to justify the participation
☛ Prepare a blue print highlighting the outcomes and measurable objectives out of participating in this event
☛ Getting a formal approval from the authorities to sign off
☛ Prepare the marketing collateral's and negotiating the contract with vendors sourcing it
☛ Creating checklists of all the items to be sent to the organizing event spot/place/location
☛ Allocate required manpower to support the company's stall
☛ Working out the logistics plan on a whole
☛ Train the employees in customer service skills to enhance the maximum footfalls in the stall
☛ Collect the customer's information like name, address, phone number, email id etc. for CRM
☛ Measure and monitor the effectiveness of the event using simple feedback surveys
☛ Document the happenings during the event participation to overcome the gaps for future events in order to get the maximum out of it.
☛ Last but least, showcase the events participation with help of media planning for wider reach by means of product review, press release both online and offline etc.

The events play the following role in Marcom:
☛ The communication messages are circulated to the mass people irrespective of segments i.e. wide reach
☛ Lower costs
☛ Increases corporate and brand image
☛ In-depth insights about target audience
☛ Global exposure for the new products/services

The following are the various tools used to communicate with the target audience:
☛ Company newsletters
☛ Journal article
☛ Conference
☛ Trade shows
☛ Exhibitions
☛ Product brochure
☛ Word of mouth
☛ Direct mail
☛ Internet
☛ TV
☛ Local/regional/national newspaper
☛ Magazine
☛ Radio etc.

The various responsibilities of a person working in Marcom are as follows:
★ Crafting an effective communication messages to the target audience and implementing the same using different media starting from Internet to newsletter
★ Media management and measurement
★ Liaison with creative agency
★ Designing marketing collateral's
★ Sourcing vendors and vendor management
★ Managing market research assignments
★ Web content and corporate website management
★ Training & Development
★ Organizing conferences and other product launch events
★ Active participation in exhibitions/trade shows and
★ Meeting public relations requirements.

Marcom is an acronym for "Marketing Communication". It is a kind of promotional tool using different media like print, radio, television, direct mail, internet to reach target audience for creating awareness about any product/service in the market place.

One of the main responsibilities of a Marcom person is to ensure the organization and product/brand image to be good in front of the eyes of the consumers. On a timely basis, PR should be used to create awareness to the public in relation to the events happening in the company such as new product launch, product relaunch, sponsoring consumer events, participation in trade shows and exhibitions etc.

Using online media for Marcom activities is to ensure the maximum reach of the target audience at lower costs and results in increased consumer engagement. And also, it is easy to monitor and measure the results of online media usage. Internet is considered to be the one of the most effective tool in today’s competitive business world.

Marcom is an acronym for “Marketing Communication”. It is a kind of promotional tool using different media like print, radio, television, direct mail, internet to reach target audience for creating awareness about any product/service in the market place.

Reach
Frequency
Increase in sales
Improving the company image
Brand and advertising awareness
Cost per thousand
Change in market share etc.

The following are the type of vendors to deal with Marcom activities:

Web designing company
Creative agency
Printing press vendor
Advertising agency
Public relation agency
Digital media partners etc.

The following are the steps taken to participate in an event like exhibition or trade show:

Identifying the participation of target audience and know-how of the events
Negotiate stall rates with the organizing partner and finalize
Evaluate the feasibility of internal events budget to justify the participation
Prepare a blue print highlighting the outcomes and measurable objectives out of participating in this event
Getting a formal approval from the authorities to sign off
Prepare the marketing collaterals and negotiating the contract with vendors sourcing it
Creating checklists of all the items to be sent to the organizing event spot/place/location
Allocate required manpower to support the company’s stall
Working out the logistics plan on a whole
Train the employees in customer service skills to enhance the maximum footfalls in the stall
Collect the customer’s information like name, address, phone number, email id etc. for CRM
Measure and monitor the effectiveness of the event using simple feedback surveys
Document the happenings during the event partipation to overcome the gaps for future events in order to get the maximum out of it.
Last but least, showcase the events participation with help of media planning for wider reach by means of product review, press release both online and offline etc.

The following are the various tools used to communicate with the target audience:

Company newsletters
Journal article
Conference
Trade shows
Exhibitions
Product brochure
Word of mouth
Direct mail
Internet
TV
Local/regional/national newspaper
Magazine
Radio etc.