Marketing Interview Questions: It’s Time To Market Yourself!

If you are up for an interview for a job in marketing, there is a good chance that you probably know a little marketing already.  At the very least, you are familiar with how to persuade or get someone to think that something is desirable.  Well, here you are in the hot seat, and this is your chance!  It is now time to market the most important thing that you have –yourself.  First off, congratulations on scoring an interview!  One of the first steps in getting a job is getting asked in to be interviewed.  However, the next step is actually landing the job, and to do that, you have got to ace the interview, wow the interviewer, or captivate your audience—whatever you want to call it.  Luckily, there are many online courses on how to successfully prepare for an interview that will likely prove to be helpful at this time.

Marketing Skills

Before we get into the Qs and As, let’s first go over some skills that employers are looking for when they sift through potential marketing candidates.  Essentially you will need a broad mix of marketing skills to be successful in this industry.  You probably are already aware of these, but they are important to remember before going into an interview so that you can remember which keywords to emphasize.

• Interpersonal skills
• Good oral and written communication skills
• Analytic ability
• Creativity
• Persuasive and Negotiating skills
• Ability to work well with a team
• Organization
• IT skills
• Ability to make good Business judgments
• Perseverance

During your interview, try to demonstrate having all of these skills, as it will be easier to get your foot in the door.  Not all skills are derived from work-related activities or experience.  If you have not been on the job circuit for too long, do not worry.  Simply apply these skills to daily life situations to sell employers your potential to be able to react properly with this skill set.

Let’s Try These Out

Marketing employers, as well as other specific industries will generally ask you two types of questions, which are: “Fit” and “Case”.

“Fit” questions determine whether you are the right fit for the company interviewing you, and how well you have demonstrated the skills crucial to the position you are applying for.  It is imperative that you do your research on the company and the job description that you are interviewing for to properly identify what your potential employer is looking for.  Use the information that you find to tailor your answers to express how those skills will make you a proper fit for the company.

“Case” questions, on the other hand, assess your general knowledge about industry-specific marketing.  This will include dealing how well you know how to deal with products and advertisements , and your ability to apply your critical thinking abilities towards marketing projects or campaigns.  As always, research the company’s products before the interview, and come up with some ideas of your own that you can pitch to your interviewer to let your creativity shine!

Now, let’s go over some Marketing specific interview questions that an employer might ask:

1.      Give an example of a marketing project that did not go as planned.

Do not be shy about admitting to a mistake.  Be sure to let the employer know that you were able to recognize where the fault was in your plan, and how you learned from the experience.  Perhaps extend that example into providing another one detailing how you handled it differently after you learned from your mistake.  Focus on what you learned.

2.      Tell us about a marketing project that you executed on-time and under budget.

Employers love people who are able to plan and organize properly.  Those are key tactics into making sure that things run smoothly.  Focus on how your planning and organizing skills worked to help keep the project under budget.  Emphasis your ability to be a leader and to delegate properly to keep everything running smoothly and on-time.  Also, highlight your ability to think on your feet when your team ran into any issues.

3.      Describe a time when you took a creative course of action during a workplace situation.

In the workplace, you are always going to have to think outside the box.  Marketing requires a fair amount of your individual creativity.  Give an example of a time when you took a less-traveled route, and why you decided to switch things up.  This will demonstrate your thinking skills as well as your ability to make decisions based on the resources you were given.

4.      Tell of a time you convinced someone to do something they did not want to do.

Especially when you are working with team or on a group project, not everyone is going to be in complete agreement about everything.  Think about a time when you were able to persuade someone to take a different course of action than they wanted to.  This is important in marketing, as you are going to have to have good persuasive skills and negotiating abilities.

5.      Which one of our products most appeals to you and why?

For any marketing interview, it is important to familiarize yourself with what the company does and what it produces.  Find out how and why it is successful in the products and services that it offers.  With this information, you will be able to detail to your interviewer what appeals to you and how the company’s marketing made the product desirable to you.  You can even go into how you would put your spin on the brand to make it even better.

6.      Give us an example of a brand that you believe has good marketing.

Pick one of your favorite brands and explain why it targeted you.  Think about the essential parts of marketing and describe in detail how each of those worked to create an appeal to you.

8.      If you were a brand, which brand would you be and why?

Here is your chance to market yourself!  This is also your opportunity to differentiate yourself from other candidates and show the company your creativity and individualism.

Market Yourself!

Marketing is about creating desire between a company and consumers.  For the marketer, this is a relationship grown from carefully figuring out what consumers want.  During your interview, you need to be sure that you market yourself properly to create that chemistry between you and the employer.  No matter what type  position you are trying to land, show your employer that you can use essential marketing tools to satisfy a them and make them want more of you and your time.

There you have it.  Try any one of Udemy’s plenty of useful courses on interviewing, and you will be ready to put your marketing skills to good use.  Remember, this is your time to show off.  Go get ‘em!