Marketing is a demanding and often complex career field that targets a consumer’s interest in services and goods. As such, marketing interview questions cover a diversity of topics intended to address the different components for a successful marketing career. Interviewers will test prospective marketing employees with four basic types of questions: general background, familiarity with the specific company and the marketing profession as a whole, skills and competency, and problem-solving.
Requisite questions asked in almost any type of job interview should be expected, such as “Tell me about yourself,” “Walk me through your resume,” “Tell me about some of your strengths and weaknesses,” and “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Perhaps the most important tip to remember in answering such questions is to keep answers short and relative to the position in question. For example, when asked ‘Tell me about yourself,’ interviewees should only include professional information that demonstrates a clear career path and that remains focused on the employer’s — not the employee’s — needs. Basic tips for a job interview also apply: clarity in communication, a firm handshake, maintaining eye contact, good posture, professional dress, and any other aspect that will convey a good first impression.
An interviewer may also want to test one’s knowledge of the basics of marketing. The interviewer may ask marketing interview questions similar to the following: “What factors do you consider the most important when attempting to influence consumer behavior?”, “How do you research for a target market?”, or “How would you define our product or service?” In any profession, individual companies have unique requirements that an employer needs to fulfill. One company may be a small start-up looking for a general jack-of-all-trades in an employee, while another is a large conglomerate who needs someone that specializes in overseas competition. Whatever the company’s needs, an interviewee should be prepared for marketing interview questions like “What value will you bring to our company?” or “Tell me about our company or a recent campaign and what changes or adaptations you would recommend.” Detailed research will be of utmost assistance in answering such questions.
Skills and specialized knowledge are particularly important in advertising and marketing due to the field’s fiercely competitive nature. Understanding competitors and consumers alike is an important psychological component of marketing jobs, so one should be prepared for questions that address marketing trends and competitor advantages/ weaknesses: “What recent trends have you noticed in our field and how might we capitalize on them?” and “Describe the positive and negative aspects of a competitor’s product launch” being such examples. Marketing professionals also utilize various methods and tools in their day-to-day activities like statistical concepts and research methodology, computer technology, and public relations. Therefore, marketing interview questions such as “Tell me about the different aspects of a marketing project you recently delivered” and “Give me an example of how you: integrated traditional and new media marketing/utilized marketing research tools/delivered a project on deadline and on budget/dealt with a difficult setback/helped resolve a team conflict” are commonplace.
Creativity is another heralded component in the advertising and marketing world, particularly if one’s desired job involves product design and development. Challenging questions like “Devise a marketing plan for our new product,” “You are product X, now sell yourself to me,” and “If you could invest in a new product venture, what would it be and what first steps would you take?” might address a person’s ability to think outside the box and on the spot.
The aforementioned assets of creativity and complex thinking can be most efficiently put to the test with an interviewer’s problem-solving questions. While knowledge and skills are of utmost importance, their true value to an employer lies in their application. Hypothetical questions can demonstrate an employee’s competencies and fit for the organization by placing him or her in a situation that might be faced in everyday activities. Some examples of such testing questions include “Tell me how you would increase profit margins by ten percent in the next five months” or “If you only had $500 US Dollars (USD) to market your product, how would you do it?” These types of questions are dependent on the type of specialty a person enters, whether it is higher level management or a more traditional position like research and development.