Some of the most important skills for a marketing career are – creativity,  leadership abilities, marketing/technology platform experience, knowledge of data science, negotiation skills, an analytical bend of mind, emotional intelligence and financial acumen.

“Marketing planning is the work of setting up of objectives for marketing activity and of determining and scheduling the steps necessary to achieve objectives” (American Marketing Association).

We can, therefore, state that marketing planning involves three basic steps as follows:

(1) The establishment of marketing objectives (which may be market expansion, market diversification, product diversification, dis­tribution system improvements, etc.);

(2) The identification, determination, and specification of marketing activities (which may be product profile, product design, adverti­sing media selection, retail and/or wholesale distribution method, variable pricing technique, transportation mode selection, etc.); and

(3) The preparation of a planning document including a statement of the major planning premises upon which the entire marketing plan is based in carder to show:

(i) The company’s own strengths and weaknesses,

(ii) The company’s potential opportunities in the market place, and

(iii) The company’s resources at command and their allocation to the different sub-activities of its marke­ting set-up.

All implementation plans for important business areas like marketing, new products, research and development, manufacturing, and finance start with the market-place for the reason that the sales set into motion and support all other company operations.

Robert W. Ferrell considers ‘customer orientation’ as the fundamental concept that directs the establishment and application of a business planning process with its related activities.

For this reason, he advocates that marketing planning is the area which should be uppermost in the development of strategic company planning, To support this view, Ferrell continues to state that market factors are needed to be examined during the overall premising stage and many basic questions about the marketing objectives are required to be answered in establishing the final overall company objectives.

Thus, the groundwork for market plann­ing involves many major marketing questions to be answered.

The overall marketing planning can be illustrated as follows:

Traditionally, a market is a physical or a meeting place where buyers and sellers gather to buy and sell products and services. These markets exist for products/services that are daily necessities like fruits, vegetables, fish, garments, electronic goods, etc. The transaction for these necessities happens directly with the buyer, which also includes a process of bargaining.

Modern markets are not different from traditional markets except the market need not only be a physical place. Modern markets act like facilitators that allow buyers and sellers of a product or service for exchange. Modern markets can include products/services which are daily necessities along with durable items like plates, knives, fans, etc.

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For example- supermarkets (Big Bazaar), hypermarkets, minimarkets, etc., provide all products / services under one roof at fixed prices. Modern markets however, do not allow bargaining like in traditional markets but are considered to be relatively cleaner environment than traditional markets. Modern markets also include online shopping for food (Big Basket), clothes (Myntra), etc., which focus on convenience at prices usually higher than traditional markets.

The following are the merits or benefits of sales promotion:

1. Invitation – They include a distinct invitation by alluring customers to consider or try out the new product that encourages customers to make purchase of the product.
2. Differentiation – Sales promotion is conducted when producers have a new product to launch which is different from the existing products. Sales promotion compels consumers to identify the new product differently through sales promotion.
3. Pricing strategies – Sales promotions enable producers to adjust short-term variations of supply and demand of products. Based on this they can test the highest price they can charge on the product and the possible discount price they can offer to the customers.

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4. Consumer satisfaction – Customers enjoy some satisfaction from being smart shoppers when they take advantage of special prices under varied retail formats.
5. Revenue generation – It attempts to create sales and revenues in the short-run for retailers especially for complementary products. For example, discounts on new tea product will increase sales of complementing goods like sugar, honey or milk.

Customers are individuals or businesses who purchase products and services produced by a business. The purchase of products and services depends upon the willingness and the ability of the customer to pay in accordance to their needs and wants. Needs and wants are different from each other, wherein needs are those pro­ducts/services which are necessities such as food, water, clothing or home.

Alterna­tively, wants are those products / services which an individual aspires to have in addi­tion to the necessities which an individual can do without. For example, gold or dia­mond jewellery, an expensive and branded watch, designer clothes, lottery tickets, etc.

A seller is an individual or an entity that exchanges any type of goods or service in return for payment. Sellers are also marketers that include intermediaries or vendors, suppliers, advertising and market research agencies, media and entertainment, which facilitate distribution and sale from businesses to customers.

These sellers or marketers:

1. Identify and target a set of customers that form a target market which a marketer believes could be addressed by a business.
2. Recognise the nature of product/service that could cater to the (target) market’s needs.

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3. Promote the features and characteristics or solutions offered from consumption of the products/services in accordance to the market’s needs.
4. Distribute the products /services to the target market.
5. Determine relevant pricing strategies that adjust the costs to the market according to the solution provided by the products / services (For example, discounts, freebies, etc.).
6. Provide additional services that can enhance the value of the solutions provided by the products /service (For example, customer care, etc.).

The following are the demerits of sales promotion:

1. Short duration – Sales promotion attempts to generate sales only in the short-run.

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2. Supplementary marketing strategies – Sales promotion as a marketing strategy cannot work in isolation. It can work only if its format is incorporated with advertising and personal selling.
3. Inferior goods and image – For generating quick money, producers may promote inferior or low quality goods, or packaging. Also, low pricing on a new product may also indicate low brand confidence and possible reduce sales in the long-run. This may adversely affect the image of the brand and reduce short term sales.
4. Ineffective promotion – Ineffective promotion caused by lack of trained and inexperienced salespersons or unavailability of supporting infrastructure may lead to excess stock.

1. To do the entire selling job (as in mail order advertising).
2. To introduce a new product (by building brand awareness among potential buyers).
3. To force middlemen to handle the product (pull strategy).
4. To build brand preference (by making it more difficult for middlemen to sell substitutes).
5. To remind users to buy the product (retentive strategy).
6. To popularise some change in marketing strategy (change in price, etc.).
7. To combat or neutralise competitor’s advertising.
8. To acquaint buyers and prospects with the new uses of the product (to extend the product’s life cycle).

In sum the primary objectives of advertising is to increase sales.

Sales promotion refers to a traditional element of marketing communication. It is used to increase the sales of a product by offering incentives, gifts, and schemes provided to customers at the time of purchase. An organization can provide various offers for promoting a good or service. These offers include coupons, vouchers, prizes, gifts, discounts, and free product samples. Sales promotion not only encourages customers to buy a product or service but also triggers repeated buying. Finally, it helps organizations to make customers loyal towards their products or services.

There are two types of views that are found among marketers in relation to sales promotion. The first view advocates that sales promotion should be coupled with advertising and personal selling. This view does not give much importance to sales promotion as a major element of marketing communication.

The second view asserts that sales promotion and advertising are two distinct functions with entirely different objectives and strategies. Thus, it believes that sales promotion is equal to or even more significant than advertising. Sales promotion stimulates purchase action and advertising develops a brand reputation and builds market value.

The word ‘communication’ is derived from the Latin word communis which means ‘common.’ We attempt to communicate, that is, to establish a ‘commonness’ with another person. There are three essential parts of communication, viz., the source, message and receiver. True communication takes place only when the message means the same thing (in common) to both the parties i.e., the sender of the message and its receiver.

Marketing communication is undertaken by marketers through the devices of promotion viz., advertising, publicity, personal selling and sales promotion. The effective communication occurs when a sender (source) sends a message and receiver responds to the message which satisfies the sender.

Both must have identical meaning of the message. Effective communication is equal to- receipt of the message plus understanding plus acceptance plus action, which means decision to purchase.

Brands can be classified into different types as:

1. Manufacturer’s Brand:

Brand used by a manufacture to produce output under his own name is called manufacture’s brand like HCL, SONY, Godrej, Panasonic etc. These are mostly used at the national level and are therefore also called as national brand.

2. Distributor’s Brand:

These brands are developed and owned by the distributor or reseller like wholesalers and retailers. When manufacturer is unable to promote the brand on his own, they prefer to produce the product under distributor’s brand. In India, distributor’s brand is popular in handicraft, woollen, sport industries etc.

3. Individual Brand:

When different brand names are used for different products, it is called individual brand. Here the promotional expenditure is high as different brands have to be promoted individually e.g. Surf, Wheel and Washing Powder.

4. Family Branch:

Here all the products of a company are sold under one family brand name. This strategy of selling goods under one brand is less expensive as separate promotion for different brand names is not required e.g. Lakme for all its beauty products.

5. Umbrella Brand:

In this case all the products may be under the umbrella of one company or manufacturer. Example: – in India, Godrej, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata etc.

6. Multiple Brand:

In this case the same product is offered by the company under different brand names. This policy is useful as it promotes competition between brand managers of two different brands and also increases company’s total market share.

Price is the monetary valuation about the tangible and intangible benefits perceived by the consumer or user. There is a great interrelationship between this variable with the rest of the commercial mix components. Due to this relationship, any change in the product distribution or promotion affects the fixing of the international price.

There has to be consistency among the marketing mix components, and the fixing of international prices has to be carried out in total agreement with the objectives of the international marketing strategy designed.

For example- to penetrate a particular country market, the company has to adapt its product according to the statutory rules of that destination market (such as sanitary and packaging requirements). These adaptations are going to affect directly export price.

The price leadership strategy prevails in competitive market environment. The leading firm then makes pricing moves that are duly acknowledged by other members of the industry. Thus, this strategy places the burden of making critical pricing decisions on the leading firm; others simply follow the leader. The leader is expected to be careful in making pricing decisions.

A faulty decision could cost the firm its leadership because other members of the industry would then stop following in its footsteps. For example, if, in increasing prices, the leader is motivated only by self-interest, its price leadership will not be emulated. Ultimately, the leader will be forced to withdraw the increase in price.

The price leadership strategy is a static concept. In an environment where growth opportunities are adequate, companies would rather maintain stability than fight each other by means of price wars. Thus, the leadership concept works out well in this case. In the auto industry, General Motors is the leader, based on market share. The other two domestic members of the industry adjust their prices to come very close to any price increase by General Motors.

Usually, the leader is the company with the largest market share. The leadership strategy is designed to stave off price wars and ‘predatory’ competition that tend to force down prices and hurt all parties. The leaders chastise companies that deviate from this form through discounting or shaving. Price deviation is quickly disciplined.

A product is closely associated with the need and level of satisfaction of the customers. It may be defined as an article introduced in the market, that seeks attention, desire for acquisition and image for use to get satisfaction of a want or need of a customer. Obviously, the hierarchy of products is based on their utility and intensity of customer satisfaction. In developing a useful product, a planner has to look upon its levels. They are core products, tangible products or augmented products.

A core product or service which meets the basic need or service may be defined as the product that provides a core benefit to a customer. Such a product may be a cloth, a food item or a drinking substance, irrespective of its taste, color, attraction, beauty consciousness, etc.

A core product is just a substance that satisfies the basic need of a user and does not allow him any comparison. Thus, a product planner has to make the core product tangible to introduce it in the competitive market allowing the customer to exercise his franchise rationally, considering comparative advantages.

The product augmentation is a set of approaches followed by a company in promoting its product through effective delivery and service, incentives to customers and dealers, warranty to seek customers’ confidence on product and maintaining a product-oriented relationship of customers with the company. This level of products largely draws ‘company-customer’ oriented relationship in the market. The product levels also determine the selling process to a large extent.

The core products play an important role in product planning while the tangible products initiate the sales management process. The augmented products drive the concept of extended sales mechanism for marketing expansion and product diversification.

1. The Binomial Model:

There are two main models used in the Australian market for pricing equity options: the binomial model and the Black Scholes model. For most traders these two models will give accurate results. The binomial option-pricing model was first proposed by Cox, Ross and Rubinstein in a paper published in 1979. This solution to pricing as an option is probably the most common model used for equity calls.

The model divides the time to an option’s expiry into a large number of intervals, or steps. At each interval it calculates that the stock price will move either up or down with a given probability and also by an amount calculated with reference to the stock’s volatility, the time to expiry and the risk free interest rate. A binomial distribution of prices for the underlying stock or index is thus produced.

On expiry the option values for each possible stock price are known as they are equal to their intrinsic values. The model then works backwards through each time interval, calculating the value of the option at each step. At the point where a dividend is paid (or other capital adjustment made) the model takes this into account. The final step is at the current time and stock price, where the current theoretical fair value of the option is calculated.

 2. The Black Scholes Model:

First proposed by Black and Scholes in a paper published in 1973, this analytical solution to pricing a European option on a non-dividend paying asset formed the foundation for much theory in derivatives finance. The Black Scholes formula is a continuous time analogue of the binomial model.

The Black Scholes formula uses the pricing inputs to analytically produce a theoretical fair value for an option. The model has many variations that attempt, with varying levels of accuracy, to incorporate dividends and American style exercise conditions. However, with computing power these days the binomial solution is more widely used.

It is important to distinguish between these two terms which are commonly confused in practice. When the company looks for differentiation, it develops a series of activities competitor-oriented and this differentiation may be, for example, at tangible attribute level or at service or intangible attributes that have product value level.

When the company segments, it takes the heterogeneous market and partitions it in smaller units (segments), which are the aim for its strategy. This division is made by considering one or more consumers’ features: demographic (sex, age, etc.), socio­economic (social status, employment, purchasing power, etc.) or behavioural (loyalty and purchase frequency, etc.).

In the case of industrial use products, there may be a different segmentation criteria according to: company size and/or order, industrial sector, as well as other factors like technological development, product use, organization structure, and financial solvency. As a result, segmentation consists in entrepreneurial actions consumer or user oriented.

Apart from tangible qualities, the product has a series of totally intangible attributes. All those services that add value to the product and that are centered in consumer-oriented attention are included in this last group (whether in premarketing, marketing or post-marketing).

Main services include:

1. Demonstration and advising.
2. Warrant.
3. Reparation and replacement of faulty pieces.
4. Time and delivery compliance.
5. Training on use instructions.
6. Installation and starting up (in the case of machinery).
7. Those related to answering complaints and claims. These services try to satisfy consumers’ needs in a period that goes beyond the purchasing process, providing safety, follow-up and containment to the buyer, assistance in case of difficulties or doubts that may appear after the purchase.

There are three channel levels in the context of distribution management viz. zero level, one level and two level. Levels of channels depend on the number of intermediaries within a distribution channel. The greater the number of intermediaries, the more will be the channel level.

Where products are offered directly by the manufacturer to the customers, it is zero level channel. Over here manufacturers ensure that they are themselves equipped to forward their products smoothly to the end user. Dell at one point of time used to have zero level channel of distribution.

They customized their computers as per the requirements of customers and distributed them. One level channel involves one intermediary such that one channel member in between the manufacturer and customer. Two level channels are found mostly in case of FMCGs where there are two intermediaries viz. – wholesaler and retailer.

Retail selling process is quite different from the selling at manufacturing organizations or at the dealer organizations. In case of retail selling, the wares are already there in the store and are arranged in such a way that it catches the attention of people.

The process of personal selling starts at the juncture when the customer enters the store. The retail selling process involves guiding customers through the store in case a customer is looking out for help. Simple greetings with a subtle smile on the face is what is required apart from of course maintaining proper body language and dress sense.

The ‘People’ factor at the store should be equally well presented along with the merchandise so that the customers entering the store perceive an integration among the two. Salesmen at the store should be able to read the minds of the customers well and in cases where the customers are looking out for information, the seller should have the capacity to address the queries and complaints of the customers.

Although the salesmen’s job in modern retail outlets have been reduced due to effective visual merchandising, they do play a major ‘role to serve, educate and inform customers in taking right decisions and enabling suitable branding of the store.

The relation between sales and service department assumes significant proportion in case of products that are technical in nature or require installation and repair services. Often such products require services like technical advice on installation and also there are implications for the service department in the promises made by the sales person. In the case of products like refrigerator, television etc., it is often the recommendations of the service personnel that influence buyer decisions.

In cases where service is important in sales strategy, provisions for formal coordination are built into the structure of the organization. Sales and service should relate by locating sales and service personnel in the same field offices with regional managers of the company responsible for the activities of both the departments.

Most organizations believe in the norm that all business operations should be aimed at serving customers at a profit and for that suitable relationship need to exist between sales volume and costs of various kinds including physical distribution costs.

There are certain distribution related activities like packing, freight rate quotations and promptness of delivery that are important in securing sales volume. The costs of such activities are to be kept under control or else sales volume yields less profit.

The benefits of suitable relationship with physical distribution are significant. Proper relation between sales and physical distribution will reduce stock out occurrences and also reduce customer’s inventory requirements along with cementing relations with customers and allow greater concentration on demand creation.

In many large corporation focused on developing innovative products, R&D is constituted as a separate department. Research and development’s job is to offer scientific and engineering efforts to develop new products and improve the aspects of existing products.

This further calls for structuring product line and adjusting product features to fit customer wants and this is something that is of prime concern both for the sales as well as for the production department. Proper harmony must exist thus between these departments and this can be achieved in various ways.

One way can be through the new product department route that has the responsibility of developing new products through coordination of R&D, production and sales and marketing personnel. The second way can be through new product managers. The one-person units can be responsible for developing new products by coordinating with the R&D, production and sales.

The third way can be through new product project management team that is composed of persons home based in other departments brought together to work for new product. The fourth way can be through constitution of product development committee. Coordination needs to take place at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.

There are many companies where sales people are located far away from the corporate office where the HR team exists and this makes management of sales people a difficult job as far as the HR team is concerned. Sales departments have often found to handle all the personnel related problems on their own and the HR team mainly acts in an advisory capacity.

The HR team who are the specialists in job analysis, recruiting, selection, training and motivation are often consulted by sales executives at various junctures. The two departments have often been found to jointly formulate pension policies, vacation policies, sick leaves, health checks etc.

The relationship between the sales executives and the executives of finance and accounts department is crucial as it is the sales team assisting the finance department by furnishing sales estimates for the company budget and develop sales department’s budgets.

The finance department aids the sales department by providing rapid credit checks on prospective accounts and they also keep sales people informed about the customers’ credit standings. It has been often reported that there are some salespeople who are more interested in obtaining orders than in collecting amounts due that results in a tendency to grant credit to below-average risks.

The credit terms should be set to permit their use as selling points. There is requirement for close coordination and communication to strike a balance between individual interests of sales people and the best interests of the company they are serving.

Traditionally, it has been found that the executives of the sales department rely on the accounting department for billing customers, handling payroll computations and providing data for sales analysis etc. but then with the development of holistic management information systems in companies the performance of the above functions have shifted from the accounts department.

The sales executives share a crucial relationship with the executives of the purchasing department and they have been found to cooperate each other in three distinct ways. First, the sales department provides purchasing with sales estimates so that adequate stock of raw materials, fabricating parts and other items can be procured in advance for production purposes.

Second, the executives of the purchase department have been found to inform the sales executives regarding material surpluses and shortages. This way sales emphasis can be changed with respect to products made from these materials.

Third, data on sales department needs are furnished suitably so that purchases can be on advantageous terms by the purchase department. Often the executives of the two departments have been found to coordinate their efforts by buying as much as possible from customers and selling as much to suppliers.

The executives of the sales department have often been found to work closely with the public relations department. Public relation is consulted on various moves taken by the sales department that may have public relations repercussions.

The sales department executives have often required to relay information secured through contacts with various publics to the public relations department so that they can chalk suitable policies to be followed by the sales executives.

Research can be defined as the systematic method of exploring or carrying out detailed investigation to discover new facts or tests and verify old facts relating to different aspects of a particular subject. It is a systematic method of explor­ing, analysing and conceptualising various facts re­lated to particular subject matter. Basically, the main objective of the research is to find out solutions for various problems faced in different fields.

When the term research is applied to find out solution to various problems of marketing and gather relevant facts it is called Marketing Research. Thus, Marketing Research refers to all the research activities conducted in the field of marketing. The term Marketing Research has been defined in different ways by different experts.

Some of them are:

According to American Marketing Association, Marketing Research is defined as, “The systematic gathering, recording and analysing of data about problem related to marketing of goods and services.”

According to Philip Kotler, Marketing Research is, “The systematic problem analysis, model building and fact finding for the purpose of improved decision making and control in the marketing of goods and services.”

According to Richard D. Crisp, “Marketing Research is the systematic, objective and exhaustive search for and study of the facts relevant to any problem in the field of marketing.”

Marketing Research is thus, the collection, analysis and interpretation of facts and figures related to the marketing. It is the systematic, objective and exhaustive search of various facts relevant to any problem in the field of marketing. On the basis of the information collected, decisions may be taken and control can be exercised. Thus, Marketing Research is the investigation of facts to solve marketing problems.

There are various sources of information for sales planning viz. primary data, secondary data, other sources and sales intelligence. When new data is gathered specifically for a project in hand, it is primary data. When data already available is used for some other organizational purpose, the data is secondary data.

MIS or Management Information Systems and DSS or Decision Support systems can be concluded as examples of other sources of sales planning. Internal sales data and product life cycle patterns are some other examples of other sources of information for sales planning.

The information provided by the sales people to an organization based on their on-field experiences is termed sales intelligence. Sales people are expected to provide information for sales planning as they possess vital information about the market that can be used to develop sales forecasts and sales quotas.

Sales promotion is concerned with those activities which bridge the gap between personal selling and advertising. Its basic principle is to bring in new customer to try the product.

The main objectives of sales promotion are:

1. To increase the sales and encourage repeat purchase of the goods.
2. To attract new customers by offering better incentives.
3. To help in establishing the new product in existing and new market.
4. To stabilize a fluctuating sales trend.

Personal selling refers to face-to-face selling in which a sales representative tries to convince the customer to purchase a product by explaining or demonstrating its features. Personal selling helps organizations to keep in touch with their customers at a personal level.

It is one of the most effective and expensive methods of marketing communication. In personal selling, a sales representative tries to persuade customers to buy the products by telling them the value, features, and benefits of a product or service.

The size and nature of an organization determines its product lines. Therefore, the role of personal selling is also determined by the size and nature of the organization. Large-scale organizations produce a large quantity of products and need extensive selling as compared to small-scale organizations. In the personal selling method, the emphasis is given on improving the relationship of sales people with existing and prospective customers of the organization.

The organizations also conduct employee reward programs to foster the desirable behavior of their sales teams with their clients and customers. Personal selling helps marketers to receive immediate feedback from customers. In addition, being an expensive tool, it is mostly used in case of high cost products focusing on limited markets.

Following are the essentials of a good brand name:

1. Easy to Pronounce and Remember:

A good brand name should be short, simple and easy to pronounce and remember. This is because customers come from different cultural backgrounds and they may not be able to pronounce certain names and thus may be hesitant to use those products. Illiterate people may have the same problem. Easy to pronounce words can be easily remembered e.g. Woodland, Liberty, Bata, Surya etc.

2. Match with the Product and its Use:

A good brand name should suggest about the product, its uses, quality performance, nature etc. e.g. Nescafe Tea, Vicco Vajardanti.

3. It should be Legally Protected:

A good brand name should be legally protected under the law. It should not be offensive, obscene or negative.

4. It should be Distinctive:

A good brand name should be distinctive, unique and different from the existing brand names. This helps in better differentiation of the product e.g. Sony, Onida, Philips, Karbon etc.

objectives of promotion:-

1. To inform the customer about the nature and type of the product; its benefits; its price; features and availability.
2. To persuade the consumer to buy the product by encouraging switching of brand; changing perception; attitude and brief about product.
3. To remind the consumer about their need and availability of the product to satisfy their need.
4. To counter competition through better product, better availability and multiple uses of the product and differentiating it from competitor.
5. To build favourable image about the organization through better quality; technology and better service.

Package labeling is any written, electronic, or graphic communications on the packaging or on a separate but associated label. It includes certain information on the label of a product when it is distributed in specific ways. For example, labels of food products sold in retail outlets must contain information about its ingredients and nutritional value.

Symbols Used on Packages and Labels:

Many types of symbols for package labeling are nationally and internationally standardized. For consumer packaging, symbols exist for product certifications, trademarks, proof of purchase, etc. Some requirements and symbols exist to communicate aspects of consumer use and safety. Examples of environmental and recycling symbols include –  Recycling symbol, Resin identification code, Bar codes (below), Universal Product Codes, etc.

Organizations cannot exist in a vacuum. Every firm has to operate in the environment which surrounds it. Each organization is a part of larger system consisting of multiple forces which are interrelated and interact­ing with each other.

This environment provides threats and opportunities to organization, and it is the task of manages to continuously adjust to these changing conditions, only then it can survive and grow in the market. Environ­ment can be described as everything that is external or outside, the organization. It is also the sum-total of numerous forces within which every enterprise has to operate. These forces include both controllable and uncontrollable forces.

According to Philip Kotler “a company’s marketing environment consists of the sectors and forces outside of the marketing that affect marketing management’s ability to develop and maintain successful transactions with its target consumers”.

Thus, an organization’s marketing environment includes all such forces which have an impact on the firms marketing policies, marketing decisions and market­ing activities. Since the changes in the environment are very fast, it is of utmost importance that firms maintains strict vigil on its environment through marketing research and that is why environmental study has become the first step in strategic planning of many organization.

The following limitations of the concept of PLC may be noted:

(i) It is very difficult to determine the particular stage in which a product is.

(ii) The determination of length of each stage in the life cycle is a complicated process.

(iii) It is not necessary that all stages can be applicable to every product.

(iv) Product life cycle alone cannot be a device for marketing success.

The life cycle model can lead marketers into thinking that products are born with a predetermined life span – which they will sell for a period of time and then inevitably go into decline. But well managed products can live for decades. For example, Procter and Gamble’s Ivory soap was introduced in 1879. By adapting the marketing mix as market conditions changed, P&G kept the brand healthy for over 130 years.

Products, like human beings, have a limited life. They are created to fulfill a need. When a firm is able to fulfill a need better than its rivals, it gains mo­mentum and speed. Such products grow quickly. Both profits and market share would improve quickly, and begin to mature after a while when rivals begin to hit back.

Finally, products see the end of the road, when customers get disenchanted. They stop buying the product and the product ceases to exist. A new product, thus, progresses through a sequence of stages from introduc­tion to growth, maturity and decline. This sequence is known as product life cycle (PLC).

To say that a product has a life cycle—according to Philip Kotler is to assert three things:

1. Products have a limited life,
2. Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different chal­lenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller,
3. Products require different marketing, financing, manufacturing, pur­chasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage

The marketing research is not without its share of limitations:

1. Marketing Research cannot provide complete answer to the problems because there are many intervening variables which are difficult to control.
2. Some marketing problems do not lend themselves to valid research conclusions due to limitations of tools and techniques involved. There are many intangible and subjective variables operating which are difficult to be measured.
3. In a fast changing environment, the data collected become obsolete soon and the research findings based on them will become little use.
4. It only provides a base for predicting future events; it cannot guarantee with any certainty their happening.
5. Marketing research involves more time, effort and high cost. But it is very often said that marketing research is cheaper than costly marketing mistakes.

Relationship Marketing is defined as “an organizations efforts to develop a long term, cost effective link with individual customer for mutual benefit.” Rather than focusing on a shorter sale, the sales representative tries to establish a long term bond, and rather than just selling, the sales department works with marketing to use techniques like data base marketing, message differentiation to different target markets and tracking of promotional effects to improve the relationship.

Relationship Marketing is simply a method of selling products and services by building up a relationship with customers. It begin with the clear understanding of who your customers are, what are their values, what they want to buy, how they prefer to interact with you and how they expect to serve them.

The ultimate outcome of relationship, marketing is building a strong marketing network. A marketing network consists of the company and its supporting stake holders-customers, employees, suppliers, distributors, retailers, ad agencies and others with whom it has built mutually profitable business relationships. Today most of the relationship marketing research is being done in services marketing.

Relationship marketing was first defined as a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales transactions.

Scope of Customer Relationship Management:

1. Customer Relationship Management is an upright concept or strategy to solidify relations with customers and at the same time reducing cost and enhancing productivity and profitability in business.
2. An ideal CRM system is a centralized collection all data sources under an organization and provides an atomistic real time vision of customer information.
3. A CRM system is vast and significant, but it be can implemented for small business, as well as large enterprises also as the main goal is to assist the customers efficiently.
4. Wangling this kind of relationship with customers is not easy to manage and it depends on how the systematically and flexibly a CRM system is implemented or integrated. But once it’s accomplished it serves the best way in dealing with customers.
5. In turn customers feels gratitude of self-satisfaction and loyalty which results in better bonding with supplier and hence increasing the business.
6. A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers.
7. Customer Relationship Management strategies have given a new outlook to all the suppliers and customers to keep the business going under an estimable relationship by fulfilling mutual needs of buying and selling.

Customer Relationship Management is a strategy which is customized by an organization to manage and administrate its customers and vendors in an efficient manner for achieving excellence in business.

It is primarily entangled with following features:

1. Customers need
2. Customers response
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Customer loyalty
5. Customer retention
6. Customer complaints
7. Customer service

Customers are the most valuable resource and heart of the business. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a term which is not only used by business organizations today to maintain such good relationships with their present and old customers but the terminology is now being used by almost any type of organization to create a beneficial environment for them and all in today’s era of competition. Customer Relationship Management places the customer at the center of the organizations’ universe.

Some of the definitions of CRM are:

CRM is a process or methodology used to learn more about customers’ needs and behaviours in order to develop stronger relationships with them.

OR

CRM is a business approach that integrates people, processes, and technology to maximize the relations of an organization with all types of customers. CRM helps in understanding the customer better, which enable organizations to effectively customize their products and service offerings according to the customer needs in order to retain customers and increase customer’s loyalty and satisfaction.

OR

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a path to identify, acquire and retain customers who are the organization’s greatest assets.

OR

“Customer Relationship Management is the establishment, development, maintenance and optimization of long-term mutually valuable relationships between consumers and organizations”.

Consumer Cooperatives are not successful because:

1. Lack of consumers’ interest
2. Lack of finance
3. Absence of experts in managing the organisation.
4. Impersonal and discourteous attitude towards consumers by the employees.
5. Bureaucratic management.

Corporate Retailing is a new type of retailing which has come into existence due to severe criticism against wholesalers and various kinds of middlemen.

There are two types of corporate retailing viz.:

1. Retailers’ cooperatives, and
2. Consumers’ cooperatives.
3. Retailers’ Cooperatives:

The chief characteristic of these cooperative societies is group buying rather than group selling. They make bulk purchases and therefore they get the merchandise at a lower cost. In India, this system is not prevalent, probably because the retailers are spread out. Moreover, in the case of food items, the government agencies play a dominant role and the retailers are virtually absent. Even if they try to form societies, they are controlled.

2. Consumers’ Cooperatives:

A Consumers’ cooperative is a retail business owned and operated by ultimate consumers who purchase and distribute goods and services to the members only. The consumers form cooperative groups for the purpose of opening retail stores through which their own needs and the needs of those who choose to patronise their outlets may be supplied.

There are certain principles of these consumer cooperatives like Open membership to anyone, Democratic Control as each member has only one vote irrespective of the number of shares held. Members are allowed purchase bonus on the basis of their purchases from the society. All sales are made at existing market rates that too only on cash basis.

Advantages of Consumer Cooperatives:

1. Because of service motive the cost of operating is kept to the minimum.
2. Better quality goods are sold.
3. Elimination of all costly equipment and ornamentation of the store.
4. Need not always be located in busy places.
5. No credit is allowed, hence no problem of bad debts.
6. It is a check on monopoly and wasteful competition. During product scarcity, equitable distribution takes place, so black marketing is checked.

There are certain advantages and disadvantages of chain store system:

Advantages:

(i) Lower selling price, due to economies of bulk-buying, operations, etc.

(ii) Economies in advertising – Common advertisements covering all the units are feasible and this reduces expenditure.

Disadvantages:

(i) Inflexible in practise – Multiple shops deal in standardised products only. It creates inflexibility in providing wide variety of products.

(ii) Various customer services like home delivery, credit facility, product on demand etc. are unavailable in chain stores.

(i) Lower costs – Marketers need not maintain a store and incur costs of rent, insurance and utilities. They can produce digital catalogues for much less costs than cost of printing and maintaining paper catalogues.

(ii) Flexibility – Companies can quickly add products to their existing list and change prices and description at will.

(iii) Sizing Audiences – Marketers can know how many people visited their online sites and how many stopped at what particular steps on the site. This information can help the marketers improve their offers and advertisements.

(iv) Relationship Building – Online marketers can talk with their customers and learn much from them. They can also upload useful information such as reports and newsletters onto their system, on which the customers can comment.

(v) Affordability – Both small and large firms can afford Online Marketing. There is no real limit on the advertising space.

(vi) Speed – Information access and retrieval are instant and quicker as compared to mail and fax.

A chain store system consists of four or more stores which carry the same kind of merchandise, are centrally owned and managed and are usually supplied to from one or more central warehouses. It is a very common scenario as usually all big retail companies open multiple stores.

They have the following features:

(i) A retail chain consists of multiple retail outlets owned and operated under the same ownership.

(ii) It usually offers the same variety of merchandise across different stores.

(iii) Store operations and retail practices are standardised across stores.

(iv) It usually has a centralised purchasing and distribution system.

The factors which determine as to whether a long-term marketing plan should be for 3 or 5 years or more may be the following, among others:

(i) Product development time

(ii) Resource development time

(iii) Market  development time

(iv) Physical facilities development time

(v) Pay-off time for capital investment

(vi) Product life, etc.

The four essential phases in developing a successful marketing plan are:

(I) searching analysis of a industry

(ii) objective appraisal of the company’s major problems and opportunities

(iii) formulation of marketing programmes to implement those strategies based on industry-cum-company analyses; and

(iv) development of marketing programmes to implement those strategies.

An objective – To develop a Rs. 50 lakhs position in the home furnishings field without having any serious impact on earnings growth.

Strategy – To strengthen the home furnishings market by entering into four high- priority market segments through the acquisition of large and leading companies presently setting the market.

Here the strategy is specific to provide a basis for action – not ordinary markets but high- priority ones numbering four, and not ordinary companies but only large and leading companies.

Four strategies to increase share-of-market may be:

(1) Lower price in order to sales and hence market share;

(2) Increase product quality without raising price, unless demand is inelastic with respect to quality, increased share-of-market should result.

(3)  Intensify sales efforts by recruiting more salesman who will capture a larger portion of the market.

(4) Spend more o advertising so that the existing sales force will take more sales from competition.

Brand names should be chosen carefully since the name conveys a lot of information to a customer.

The following list contains considerations that should be made before making a choice of brand name:

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(i) Evoke positive associations

(ii) Be easy to pronounce and remember

(iii) Suggest product benefits

(iv) Be distinctive

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(v) Use numerals when emphasizing technological features

(vi) Not infringe existing registered brand name.

(i) Product Life Cycle patterns are too variable in shape and duration to be generalised. A Product Life Cycle is not applicable in all product categories.

(ii) Marketers can rarely tell which stage their product is in.

(iii) For specific products, the length of each Product Life Cycle stage is unpredictable.

(iv) A product may appear to be mature when it has actually reached a plateau prior to another upsurge.

(v) A Product Life Cycle assumes no reversion to earlier consumer preferences.

(vi) Strategic decisions can change the life cycle.

(vii) It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

(i) Competitive pricing.

(ii) Discriminatory pricing.

(iii) Psychological pricing.

(i) Competitive Pricing:

Under this strategy the price of the product is fixed at the competitive conditions. This method is used when the market is highly competitive and product is not differentiated significantly from the competitive products. It is also used when customary price level exists, as in the case of cold drinks.

(ii) Discriminatory Pricing:

It is also called dual pricing. Under this strategy, different prices are charged for the same product from different customers according to their ability to pay. It is usually followed in legal and medical services. It is possible to sell the same product at different prices in different market segments.

(iii) Psychological Pricing:

Here prices are fixed in a manner that they have i some kind of psychological influence on buyers. Odd pricing is used where prices are fixed as Rs.19, Rs.99, Rs.999, etc. Another example is price fixing where some product is offered at three different prices indicating about its quality variation.

The 8 Ps of marketing are – product, place and time, price, promotion, process, physical environment, people, and productivity and quality.

After naming the 8 Ps you must also talk about how the 8 Ps helps in: 

• Developing and executing a successful marketing plan 
• Dramatically changing the overall marketing strategy
• Defining your brand message
• Outlining your marketing process

Also, you can share your professional experiences about how you identified your marketing mix, target audience, sales goals, etc. 

Further, you can also introduce the 4Cs of the marketing mix here which are – Consumer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication. Doing this is essential as these 4Cs are now a crucial part of the modern-day digital marketing mix and also show that the business world is more focused on a customer-driven approach. 

To make this marketing interview answer impressive, you can highlight how there were 4 Ps of marketing before and how it evolved over time.

 This marketing interview question can be tricky to answer if it is for a B2B profile and you have only worked in a B2C profile. That’s why you must be sure to show how you can transfer your skills in that area to the current situation. Also, the basic marketing strategies in both domains remains the same, but below are some of the common difference that every marketer must know:

Knowing these differences can help you express your marketing ideas strongly to the recruiters. Interviewers often ask such marketing interview questions and you must prepare for such abbreviations.

The five essential elements of a successful marketing campaign are: 

• Target 
• Value proposition
• Call-to-action message
• Delivery method 
• Follow-up 

Here, you can talk about the marketing campaigns that you have directly managed and individually define the strategies you have used for these five marketing campaign elements. 

This marketing interview question is to test your knowledge of the marketing channels that you have worked with. So, do not just mention the channels but describe how you used them to deliver successful marketing campaigns. 

For example, if you have hands-on experience of using email marketing channels, you can talk about how you finalized the target audience, designed the template, planned the offer, drafted the communication message, etc. Also, talk about the open rates, CTRs, that you managed to achieve. 

This is an important marketing interview question that is based on your experience as a professional. In marketing, the customer journey map highlights how the user buys the product. For marketers, creating a customer journey involves understanding the buyer persona, his/her needs from a product/service, potential pain points while buying a product, etc. After creating this map, marketers can resolve any issues and make customers trust the product/service.

Mention the platforms that you have worked with and how it has helped in your marketing plans. 

For instance, you can talk about how you use Google Analytics to track and monitor your website’s traffic. 

Marketing is managing profitable customer relationships. The twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and to keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction.

For Example: Wal-Mart and Big-Bazaar has become world’s largest retailer, and one of the world’s largest companies, by delivering on its promise, “Always low prices, Always!”

This shows how prepared you are for the interview. Before going for the interview, go through the industry news and understand what are the current trends and customer insights.

Describe the metrics that you fixed before starting the campaign and how you measured those metrics. Explain how you analyzed those metrics and turned them into meaningful patterns that showed the impact.

We can achieve this in various ways –

1. Ensuring good user experience
2. Building referral traffic
3. Performing on-page SEO
4. Targeting long-tail keywords
5. Using landing pages

There are a range of free digital marketing tools available to streamline the everyday management of a website, including –

1. Google Analytics
2. Keyword Planner
3. Alexa
4. Rank Watch
5. Kissmetrics
6. SEMrush
7. HootSuite
8. MailChimp
9. BuzzSumo
10. Moz Learning Center

It is one of the most commonly asked networking interview questions. You can also check out the latest Google Analytics courses which can further help you to gain expertise in data-driven digital marketing.

There are certain limitations of online marketing. Some of the common ones are below. 

• Online marketing requires money
• Chances of cyberattacks prevail
• Requires time to generate results
• Takes time to build trust as compared to conventional marketing

Google AdWords Remarketing is a Google service, allowing companies and brands to target an audience that has already visited the given website. This is a methodology to drive traffic to the website and convert visitors into consumers.

A website that offers an optimal viewing experience to the user with easy navigation and reading is a responsive website. It is created using responsive web design (RWD) and is compatible with the most popularly used web browsers and mobile devices.

AMP is the abbreviation for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is a joint project of Google and Twitter for making fast mobile pages. It is an open-source initiative, which is lightweight and fast to load.

Keyword streaming is a popular SEO methodology that is used to draw extraordinary traffic to websites. In this method, popular keywords are further optimized to maximize the reach.

The anchor tag is a clickable text on a hyperlink. It helps to create a link that has relevant text on the website/webpage. It should be relevant to the page you will be linking to. Proper use of an anchor text helps a linked page to rank for a particular set of keywords on search engines.

Some of the popular PPC tools are:

• Ahrefs
• Campaign Watch
• iSpionage
• Search Monitor
• SEMrush
  SimilarWeb
• Spyfu
• Wordtracker

Well, social media can be used very smartly to drive traffic and expose brands on social platforms. We may attract more users to our brand by posting quality posts, images, videos, and other stuff. Besides, paid marketing is another approach that can help to attract users to the website. However, this involves money, but the results can be attractive, with increased page links and improved website visits.

Yes, but the approach will be different for B2B marketing. In B2C, businesses may take this liberty to share humorous as well as informative posts, but for B2B, only valuable industry content can be shared.

Content marketing is a strategy to create and share valuable content across different platforms. It aligns business and consumers, and quality content can attract and convert a visitor to the consumer.

Keywords play the most important role in drawing traffic to a particular website. Without keywords, one cannot get the desired ranking and traffic. The usage of keywords should be optimal and in the right place. SEO and content marketing are impossible without keywords.

Here are some of the strategies one can use:

1. Create topical content that has the potential to go viral. Some trending examples are controversial ideas, posts that incite emotions, etc.
2. Create well-researched content with the purpose of educating the customer in an interactive way. It can be short or long-form content depending on the business and customer preferences. 
3. Use unique CTAs instead of generic ones. Some examples are – testing different colours on CTA buttons, offering some benefit to the customer, if s/he hits the button, and so on. 
4. Choosing guest blogging for increasing organic traffic. 
5. Diversify by giving importance to all forms of content – blog, video, social media, podcasts, etc. 
6. Update and repurpose content regularly. 

The answer to this question can be completely dependent on your experience, for example, you can say that:  

Sample: “Yes, in my current company, email marketing is a prominent strategy to deploy. While shooting an email campaign, we keep track of essential metrics like email open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, bounce rate, the total number of unsubscribes, and email sharing rate. Based on these elements, we execute A/B testing to maximize the overall conversion rates. Also, from time to time, we keep identifying the pattern like time of sending emails, which type of subject line improves open rates, which campaigns didn’t perform well, etc. All these patterns help us to take a clear marketing call.” 

Site crawlers are algorithms in search engines. In Google, Google bots crawl on websites and make them available on the Google search engine index. 

It can be measured through analytics. The basic rules are calculating the number of likes, clicks, shares, etc. Conversion measurement tools and Optimized CPM (oCPM) on Facebook are important measures for social ROI.

Quality Score is an estimate of Google, based on which the quality and relevance of the keywords and PPC ads are evaluated on a score of 1 -10. Quality Score defines the quality of keywords compared to Ads, Ad text, and Landing Page.

Factors affecting quality score are –

• The relevance of keywords and ads
• Landing page quality
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) of the keyword
• Historical account data

This is among the very commonly asked marketing interview questions. Your reply should be –

For better ranking on search engines, keywords should be placed in –

• Title
• Meta tag
• Website URL
• Headings & subheadings
• Web page content

For content promotion, tactics like social media promotion, email broadcasting, influencer marketing, backlink strategy, and Quora answers work well.

Marketing a product and marketing a service both needs a different approach. While selling a product, we use the 4Ps of marketing, i.e. Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. But, when a service is to be offered, apart from the 4P’s, 3 more Ps are to be taken care of, i.e. People, Process, and Physical evidence. Thus, both require different forms of strategies to promote the overall sale.

Basically, a marketing plan is a compiled report outlining the mix of strategies that a company shall execute in the upcoming quarter/year. 

So you can say that yes, in the previous organization I got a chance to present the marketing plan to the CEO and other stakeholders. Some of the essential elements that we as a team took care of:

• Quarterly marketing and advertising goal
• Current marketing scenario
• Timeline of tasks
• Key performance indicators
• Target audience
• Budgets

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. These are the four stages through which a company can turn a prospect into a customer. For attracting the audience’s attention, we primarily use social media. Attractive product page and home page help in generating the interest of a customer. To stimulate desire, content marketing, and email marketing are the most powerful weapons. Finally, to convert a customer’s desire into action, landing pages and pricing pages do the job.

This is among the important marketing interview questions and you must prepare for the related terminologies as well.

Ambush or coat-tail marketing is a form of tactics in which an advertiser takes advantage of a significant event or campaign to promote their products without actually paying for the event fee or participating in the sponsorships. This is meant for free promotions and at the same time, competing with those participants who have actually paid for the event.

Inbound marketing involves a strategy to pull the audience close to the products/services and create brand awareness. Some of the popular elements of inbound marketing are – blogs, events, SEO blogs, social media posts, video content, influencer outreach, and public speaking. Inbound marketing helps a brand to educate prospects about the products/services they offer, and at the same time, it helps in establishing the trust and credibility of the brand.

Real-time marketing is a strategy to take advantage of live events, news, topics, or situations to market/promote the product. Most of the brands use social media channels, popularly Twitter to share a post related to the real-time situation. Yes, if done in the right way and at the right time, these tactics help in brand recall.

Advertising is one of the strongest pillars of your marketing plan and it involves advertising messages (planned for different goals like promotion, information, etc.) that are used to reach large audience groups. Thus it requires extensive marketing research and a strong strategy. Basically, advertising research is associated with the following questions:

• Who are your target customers?
• Which mode/ medium of advertising works well for your product/service?
• What is your planned budget?
• What are your success metrics?
• What should be included in your message?

USP stands for Unique Selling Point, which defines the unique attribute of your business and outlines the ways in which your business or the product or service differs from your competitors and why the prospects should choose your offerings over others. 

Along with the key strength of the product, this is the role of a marketer to ensure that your marketing and branding message clearly defines the key USP of your business and it must be aligned with the business goals. Also, a clear and precise USP helps in establishing brand recall. 

Reaching out to the target audience is a collective result of the following activities 

• Advertising
• Packaging
• Public relations
• Direct sales
• Internet/Digital marketing
• Social media marketing
• Sales promotions
• Marketing materials
• PR activities

The role of you as a marketing manager is to find the best mix of strategies that can work to meet your goals. Also, some channels can rope in good benefits to one company and for the other business model, it would make no sense. So during your marketing interview, you can think about which activities can work for them and back a strong reason for the same, depending upon their business model.  

Since digital marketing is a continuously expanding field, there are seven types of SEO. However, if you are looking for an intermediate marketing role, you should, at least, be aware of:

• On-Page SEO
• Off-Site/Off-Page SEO
• Technical SEO

It would be ideal to elaborate on these three to show that you are not simply naming them.  

You could say, on-page SEO involves keyword research and optimization along with high-quality content creation. Together they correspond to how a company’s website ranks on search engines. 

On the other hand, off-site SEO can help with building a brand’s online reputation outside its website through high-quality backlinks and so on. 

Having knowledge of technical SEO will also help your future employer gauge your professional understanding of terms such as indexing, crawling, etc.

Such common marketing interview questions are often asked by the interviewers. You can also check out a few SEO certifications.

With this question, your interviewer wants to know what you actually understand about audience research/insight. 

Social listening is a vital component of any marketing strategy. With it, a brand can analyze and respond to what others are actively communicating or discussing about its products/services on various social media platforms. 

Ideally, you should give examples to specify the importance of social listening. 

This is a tricky question because the interviewer is looking for how well you can implement this popular digital marketing tool. 

So, if you have simply tinkered with it in your previous job, do not forget to specify that you are a beginner and willing to learn. 

But, if you are experienced with it, do supplement your answer with ample reasons why every brand with a website should use it. Ideally, you can talk about customizing reports, holistic audience insights, what kind of content do the audiences prefer, and so on. 

If you could answer the question above, then the interviewer may be interested to know your familiarity with the conversion tracking, as both Google Analytics and Google AdWords do that. However, there are key differences between the two. 

Mentioning how they differ according to parameters such as session tracking, how long does conversion tracking data take for each and how it is better to link both of them, will suffice.

CMSs are the industry-standard requirements in digital marketing. Even as a fresher, you must have come across bloggers who choose WordPress. This is a type of CMS.

Knowledge of such is necessary to highlight your technical skills.  

If you have worked on WordPress before, you can talk about its in-built SEO engine, plugins, why its latest versions have to be updated, wordpress.com vs wordpress.org, etc.

Whether you know about B2B or B2C marketing, knowledge of free and paid email marketing tools is essential. MailChimp, HubSpot Email Marketing, and ConvertKit are among the most popular ones. Do elaborate on their free and paid plans along with each of their pros and cons. 

Google has its own Google Display Network that reaches 90% of internet users worldwide. Companies can use display ads for a targeted audience only which won’t be shown to users who are not interested in a product. 

Display ads are not limited to demographics but also extend to interest targeting. 

There are three types of display ads:

1. HTML ads
2. Text ads
3. Image ads

Offline media expands the reach of digital marketing. While using online mediums is cost-effective, there are many benefits of using both online and offline channels when it comes to expanding the reach and driving more ROI. Another reason to use offline marketing is when a brand is exploring different local markets. Offline marketing is also beneficial when it comes to converting customers from offline to online. Some of the important offline channels are radio, TV, electronic billboards, etc. 

For this marketing interview question, you can mention the following steps that go hand-in-hand with building a brand identity. 

1. The business should have a vision, that can range from increasing environmental sustainability or social awareness
2. A logo  that adheres to the brand’s voice makes customers identify with it
3. Driving campaigns for reaching out to prospects
4. Gain the trust of consumers by using user-generated content
5. Creating a website that enhances user-experience
6. Timely customer service
7. Encouraging constant feedback among consumers
8. Engaging prospects through email marketing

If I have to lead a direct mail campaign, I will ensure to consider the following elements:

• Clarify the objective of the campaign 
• Enlist the target audience
• Determine the budget
• Plan the template of the email and discuss the design with the design team
• Construct the message and mail copy
• Insert a Call-To-Action button with source parameters
• Send the draft mail within the team to take the feedback
• Shoot the mail and track the result
• Communicate the results to the team 
• Perform A/B testing if it is required for future campaigns

You should mention that the pitfalls in email outreach campaigns are:

1. Not giving enough attention to the email pitch and personalization – Choosing only one template and changing the name is no personalization. New content that suits the customer’s new need rather than old data should be given importance. 
2. Not offering anything in return –  Sharing links should have some benefit for the customer. Links can be about guest blog posts or even gift cards. 

Do provide your response to this marketing interview question with examples.

Word of mouth promotion is a very essential and powerful business technique that helps both small and large scale businesses. It also does wonders for service offering companies and is very cost-effective. Below are some techniques to increase the word of mouth:

• Work on offering excellent customer service
• Know more about your client’s preferences
• Communicate well with your clients
• Ask for feedback after every service
• Ask for referrals
• Reach out to influencers for communicating with your clients
• Give them a link to your social media handles to write their review

To scale up a small business the following strategies can work:

• Increase focus on recapturing existing clients. Here using promotional offers can work.
• Asking for referrals is also an effective strategy
• Using email and social media as a channel can increase the existing client base
• Targeting new demographic works well
• Promoting additional usage of current products can help in increasing the target audience
• Product diversification and adding related products increases the sales numbers

For this marketing interview question for the experienced, mention the following practices. 

• Identify the target audience and their needs
• Check out competitions’ current marketing activities
• Evaluate the idea based on budget and expected ROI
• Perform A/B testing
• Discuss it with the other team to get a fresh perspective

You may consider such marketing interview questions to be basic, but such questions are the favorite of interviewers as interviewees often leave behind such marketing interview questions while preparing.

Here are some of the most popular trends this year:

1. Geofence Marketing – It is location-based marketing that connects with smartphone users in a specific geographical area. Brands can use it to find the target audience when they are purchasing from a competitor brand. Apart from internet connections such as Wi-Fi, geofencing utilizes Bluetooth, RFID, etc. 
2. Instagram Reels – Digital marketers can use these short-form videos of 15 to 30 seconds. The platform offers customizable and sophisticated video and audio processing tools. 
3. Voice Search Optimisation – This is gradually becoming popular as a large majority of Gen Z and Millenials are now using Alexa and similar products. 

This is a tricky situational question asked during your interview. Here the recruiter is interested to know two things. One that what measures can you take to retain a good resource and other how will you manage the loss, will you get panic. So the perfect answer could be:

I would talk to the employee and understand the root cause of such a decision. If the reason is quite genuine and personal, I will ask him to take an extended leave, and if it makes no sense to the employee, I won’t force him/her to stay back. But if the reason is something related to growth/dissatisfaction; I will speak to HR and try to retain the employee in all possible ways. By any chance, if nothing works, I will look for the next available resource and help him/her with the right training.

Picking the right target audience is most essential as the entire marketing plan and strategies will depend upon it. To decide the target audience for a new product depends upon factors like existing target audience, product type, product usage, prospective buyers, competition analyses, price of the product, psychographics of the audience we want to reach, and all such factors.

It is said that marketing and sales go hand in hand, and that’s the reason why a lot of marketing people frequently communicate with the sales guys. To answer this question, you can quote the below situation during the interview (or share a similar real-time experience) 

Sample – “In my previous organization, one of the biggest obstacles that I observed were lead conversions. The problem arrives when the marketing team taps the right audience and makes it float into the sales funnel, but the sales team couldn’t close the deal. To overcome this issue, we conduct periodic discussions with the sales head and try to understand the ground level of problems that they actually witness during conversions. Accordingly, we worked together to overcome the real issues and improved profitability.”

Taking advantage of popular live events is an excellent opportunity for any company. But as we know that to advertise in such circumstances requires huge funds, hence the planning and objective should be precise. Thus, the promotional message should be clear, crisp, and engaging.

Your answer should clearly highlight how you will measure the return on investment over the long term for your investment.

Further, you can share some of your ideas or experience to promote a product during such events.

A well-designed home page gives the first impression of your business to your audience; hence, it should be bright and appealing depending upon the business. You can pick the homepage that you like and back your answer with the right justification. You can say that this homepage has elements like a clear call-to-action button, appealing brand message, excellent visual branding, trustable, social media buttons, proper sitemap, etc.

The question is to know that as a marketing manager, which elements you would like to see on the website’s homepage. This showcases your analytical mind, creativity, and ability to make quick yet accurate decisions.

A combination of theoretical and practical training will help to learn and deploy a new tool. We can conduct regular training sessions. Once everyone is clear about the tool, we will hold a periodical meeting to learn about his or her progress and answer queries related to common challenges.

When you give such an answer, this shows that you are a team player and adaptable to new technologies.

When a customer leaves any negative review, the best way to respond is to make the customer feel important by addressing the problems he faced. This will, automatically, make the customer feel connected and will be delighted by the support he received, leading to positive feedback.

The best marketing interview answer would be to focus on getting new customers, the second important part of your marketing campaigning would be getting more leads and if you could afford more resources, you can focus on improving the conversion process.

Explain a campaign that has performed extremely well due to your innovativeness and the techniques you used to achieve it.

This marketing interview question is to gauge your previous experience. Tell the interviewer how you have handled such campaigns before and what are the ways you did like creating a new tagline, a logo, and how you connected with the targeted audience.

Explain to the interviewer how you will try innovative ideas and focus on the best ways to increase the efficiency of your marketing campaigns.

Launching a product is all about timing, market, and creating a vibe. This interview question gauges exactly that. There should be a good build-up to promoting the product before its launch so that the interest in the market is captured. Also, the timing should be perfect so that it does not have to compete with a newly-launched similar product.

For this experience-based marketing interview question, tell the interviewers about any of your marketing campaigns that changed the way customers viewed the product and helped in improving the sales.

Typically, your future employer wants to know how good you are with your problem-solving skills. 

A good response would be that you took steps to understand the actual reason why your former team members did not agree with an idea.  You should also specify how you found ways to help your team members overcome their doubts and whether your tactics made them comfortable with your vision.

Answering this marketing interview question would determine whether you are suitable enough for the company’s work environment and that you are ready to take on the responsibility. So, be frank and completely personal about why you are a good fit.

As KPIs help evaluate performances, it would be best to mention how in the previous job you had successfully made decisions for business growth after exhaustive research/analysis. With this answer, your prospective employer will know how good you are at building an effective strategy.

Here the recruiter is interested to know about your learning ability and how you follow the new trends. So you can tell the recruiter some of the publications/blogs you follow and mention something about those blogs. You can also share your experience related to the one good marketing tactic that you applied in real-time situations and saw results. 

The employer is trying to check your people’s skills by asking such questions, as it is one of the essential skills that a marketing professional should possess. So, you can narrate an incident when your networking helped in marketing. You can give an example of an influencer marketing campaign that was only possible because of your relationship-building efforts.

Ideally, you should mention every detail about the courses you have taken in your CV. Also, you must talk about your learning in particular to the recruiting manager. This gives positive feedback and makes you more employable.

Doing a job without loving it is not a healthy thing. Through this question, the interviewer checks how passionate you are about marketing and the value that you can add to the organization.

Marketing is usually a combination of creative and analytical skills. Your preference should be such that it gives enough room for creativity while being diplomatic in certain situations.

Through this question, the interviewer wants to know how much you have learned in your current role, and if you are someone who is eager to learn new skills.

Communication is a prominent aspect of marketing. You should not only communicate effectively with your customers but also within your organization, with the product and sales team. This way, you will gain a better knowledge of the product and also understand how your marketing campaigns are working for sales.

Talk about only the achievements related to the marketing field and your profile in order to show that you will bring the same success to the organization you are interviewing for.

This is where you should have the art of taking something negative and making it positive. E.g. you can say you hate the idea of manually pulling data, so you automated the process in order for it to become easy for you.

There are a number of other questions that can be asked but the above list should be enough to get you started. You can take up a course to improve your skills in marketing. 

You should do complete market research before appearing for the interview. Suggest a figure that goes correctly with your experience, the job profile, and your current salary. You can also offer a salary range and leave room for negotiation, but never bargain. You need to understand your market worth and shouldn’t settle for the number you are not happy with.

Therefore, it’s time for you to relax and gear up for a not-too-formal conversation with the interviewer. Reply smartly; do not get indulged in family talks with your interviewer. The best way you can reply to this question is by citing some of your personal achievements or something that is related to your work profile. You can share about strength, or you can talk about things that motivate you. You can also share a story that reveals something great about your accomplishments.

Some of the must-have skills that interviewers lookout in their potential marketers are –

• They have the ability to drive revenues
• They understand the market and know their customers
• They can ensure an excellent customer experience
• They believe in experimentation and think out of the box
• They never stop learning
• They are pro at using data to make decisions
• They have the ability to manage people and can work in big teams
• They have consistently delivered identifiable results

You should know that your potential employer is looking out for those who have the ability to accept their mistakes, learn and adapt. Your ideal response should be that you don’t harp on it and rather, demonstrate an eagerness to learn.

This marketing head interview will help you to understand the job responsibilities of marketing professionals in a better way.

In a reply to such marketing interview questions, you can share your accomplishments on a given project. To be more precise, you can take the help of the below pointers and answer as per the marketing style of the company –

1. Devise a brilliant storytelling plan for the product
2. Work as per the brand perception
3. Do something out of the box, come up with something that your competitors hasn’t done yet
4. Shout out to your existing consumers
5. Don’t promise if you can’t deliver
6. Always up for a new challenge and ready to take risks

Conclusion

Marketing may look slightly different in each company, but it is often at the intersection of several disciplines and functions, including but not limited to customer success, marketing, product management, and sales. If you are considering embarking on a career in marketing, the experience of working with these teams or performing these roles can be extremely valuable. It is a career that often involves a combination of creativity and the ability to communicate well with an audience.

Research about the company, including its revenue, ADRs, target audience, social media presence, competitors, new product launches, news coverage, etc. Show your creative side, do carry some of the commendable work you did in the past Mark a strong professional presence online, promote your skills and develop a following on the social networks Dress professionally, list your achievements, be prepared to ask questions, make mental notes while you speak with the interviewers.

Some good questions related to marketing can be – What are the objectives of the marketing department? What is your brand strategy? How do you develop and promote your products? What is your target audience? How are you leveraging big data? What are your customer retention strategies? How do you track results?

Marketing a product and marketing a service both needs a different approach. While selling a product, we use 4Ps of marketing, i.e. Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. But, when a service is to be offered, apart from the 4Ps, 3 more Ps are to be taken care of, i.e. People, Process, and Physical evidence. Thus, both require different forms of strategies to promote the overall sale.

USP stands for Unique Selling Point, which defines the unique attribute of your business and outlines the ways in which your business or the product or service differs from your competitors and why the prospects should choose your offerings over others. Along with the key strength of the product, this is the role of a marketer to ensure that your marketing and branding message clearly defines the key USP of your business and it must be aligned with the business goals. Also, a clear and precise USP helps in establishing brand recall.

Devise a brilliant storytelling plan for the product Work as per the brand perception Do something out of the box, come up with something that your competitors has not done yet Shout out to your existing consumers Don’t promise if you cannot deliver Always up for a new challenge and ready to take risks.

Digital Marketing is a broad field that includes various specializations such as SEO, social media, web analytics, PPC, affiliate marketing, etc. Depending on your interest, you can specialize in any of these areas.

Social media is a buzzword used for various sites that are used to carry out social actions and build connections online. Like Facebook is a full-blown social networking site. It not only lets you share updates, photos, joining events and but also carries out paid promotions of brands through ads. Digital marketing comprises online marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing. While digital marketing is the application of multiple digital channels to build awareness and promote a business/product as well as services to a target audience, social media is dependent only on networking platforms.

The difference between marketing research and market research is that market research focuses on a specific market and its scope is narrow, while marketing research encompasses a wider area. In other words, market research is a subset of marketing research.

We can achieve this in various ways – ensuring a good user experience, building referral traffic, performing on-page SEO, targeting long-tail keywords, using landing pages, etc.

Inbound marketing involves a strategy to pull the audience close to the products/services and create brand awareness. Some of the popular elements of inbound marketing are u2013 blogs, events, SEO blogs, social media posts, video content, influencer outreach, and public speaking. Inbound marketing helps a brand to educate prospects about the products/services they offer, and at the same time, it helps in establishing the trust and credibility of the brand.