Operational Share Market Interview Questions & Answers:

1. Explain How well do you cope under pressure?

An inevitable question considering the occupation! You should give examples of situations in which you have coped. Obvious examples will come from your academic experience preparing work to deadlines etc. Try and mention experiences from areas outside university as well. Perhaps from vacation work experiences or other jobs you have had.

There are some people who actively thrive on having things constantly demanded of them. Are you one of these people? On the other hand, do you enjoy pressure at work while having a very contrasting quiet life away from work? Bear in mind that you must really answer in the affirmative as pressure comes with the territory of a career in Marketing.

2. Tell us why do you want to get into marketing?

Your reasons should relate both to the occupation and the particular company interviewing you. Your interests in any of the following could prove useful to mention: working to tight deadlines, working under pressure, meeting targets, getting the job done, selling, making deals, being competitive, presenting to others etc.

Don't feel you have to limit your answer to just the occupation alone. Give reasons why you find the particular firm attractive. It is often a good idea to broaden the scope of a question and turn it into more of a normal conversation.

Include any examples of selling from your university days. Did you effectively advertise the films at the film society, for example, or increase the membership, or attract many more volunteers, or sell lots of tickets for an event? etc.

3. Tell us what would be your first actions if we were to appoint you?

This is one of those hypothetical questions which many companies ask. It is very important for your answer to be both accurate and realistic. For example, if the company has a structured training scheme you could suggest that your first action would be to familiarise yourself with it and see if there was anything to do, before you start work, to prepare yourself for the training.

You might also consider meeting with all the key staff concerned with the product or service you will be marketing. The products /services themselves may also be new to you, so you may need to familiarize yourself with them when you first take up your position.

On the other hand you could want to discuss your first actions with your boss. A wise precaution for a new recruit. Your first action could therefore be to arrange to meet at his/her earliest convenience to discuss your first activities within the firm.

4. Would you describe yourself as competitive for this job?

The easy answer is yes. You must give plenty of examples. And from as many aspects of your life as possible. University experience certainly, but also include situations from your early life in order to demonstrate that competition is natural to you. Sporting activities are an obvious source here.

Show that you are competitive on your own as well as within a team situation. You should also suggest that you are successfully competitive. Failing in competition will not look very good.

Bring into your answer how other people see you. Do they regard you as a competitive person and if so is that a good or a bad thing? Are you the kind of person others look to when they are faced with a challenge?

5. Explain Which of our products/services most appeals to you and why?

You can afford to be brutally honest here, because the question is about which product/service you most like. It begs the question that you do actually know about the firm and indeed have a preference. For any marketing interview you must prepare in advance by familiarizing yourself with what the company does!

A successful product/service is worth concentrating on. 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, but through the marketing strategy attached to them they are now also perceived as funny and good fun. This is obviously important when one of their biggest markets is children.

6. Explain Pricing to cover variable costs and some fixed costs, as in the case of some automobile distributorships that sell below total costs, is typical of which of the following pricing objectives?

a) Current profit maximization
b) Product quality leadership
c) Market share leadership
d) Survival

Answer:
d) Survival

7. Explain What makes you think that a degree in _____ will get you a job with us?

A bit of a challenging question. Although the simple response is that a degree alone will not get you the job. Your other skills, activities, experiences and interests should count just as much as the subject you have studied.

Focus on the constituent skills of your particular degree. For example, if you had studied Psychology you could describe in detail how any or all of the following skills would be of use to you in a Marketing situation:

* the understanding and analysis of human behavior and experience
* using scientific methods
* analyzing and solving problems
* numeracy skills.
* use of information technology
* communication skills both written and oral.

8. That the company that overlooks new and better ways to do things will eventually lose customers to another company that has found a better way of serving customer needs is a major tenet of which of the below:

a) Innovative marketing
b) Consumer-oriented marketing
c) Value marketing
d) Sense-of-mission marketing

Answer:
a) Innovative marketing

9. Which of the following information forms available to the marketing manager can usually be accessed more quickly and cheaply than other information sources?

a) Marketing intelligence
b) Marketing research
c) Customer profiles
d) Internal databases

Answer:
d) Internal databases

10. A ________ is a good offered either free or at low cost as an incentive to buy a product?

a) Patronage reward
b) Spiff
c) Price pack
d) Premium

Answer :
d) Premium