Interviewing for Brand Management Clorox Recruiting Buddy Interview Preparation Guide Interviewing for Brand Management â Skill Sets Most Brand Management interviewers look for strong evidence of the following skills: leadership, analytical thinking and results orientation. Once they have asked the general questions (like âtalk me through your resume,â âtell me about yourselfâ), they continue with a combination of behavioral questions that enable you to demonstrate leadership and results orientation. Case questions give you the opportunity to illustrate your analytical thinking skills. Fortunately, there is no single correct answer. The best answers are concise, well-thought-out responses that answer the question while leveraging as many of skill sets they are looking for. The best answers are framed logically using this outline: situation, challenge, action steps, results. Skill Sets You Want to Try To Demonstrate In any Brand Company Interview 1. Thought Leadership · Able to effective influence other's thinking to drive "right" decision · Able to provide input and guidance to all levels of an organization · Able to develop a vision and motivate organization in its support · Takes personal ownership of group decisions and direction; able to own and drive change 2. Critical Thinking and Decision Making · Able to identify and understand key strategic drivers for a business; able to understand key issues and their implications · Able to identify critical questions and information needs · Able to use a systematic approach to defining and solving problems, and providing business direction 3. Results Orientation · Bias for action and speed, passion to win · Challenges the status quo · Relentless drive to ensure the right decisions and actions take place to deliver results · Operates with limited direction while exhibiting self-motivation and a sense of urgency · Personal dedication to consistently reach goals and exceed expectations · Consistently drives multiple projects and tasks, effectively leveraging the efforts of others, delivering high productivity in project completion 4. Collaborative Team Skills · Able to build relationships and leverage skills despite potentially differing points of view. Understands and appreciates others views · Able to facilitate win-win solutions to problems and issues · Provides constructive approach resolving problems/issues, acting as a positive role model for the team 5. Consumer Insight and Judgment · Able to use intuition and current consumer knowledge to formulate opinions · Able to consider consumer behavior in evaluating marketing plans and projects · Able to develop unique and novel solutions to problems, based on consumer insights 6. Verbal Communications · Able to present complex information clearly and concisely · Able to influence or persuade others through oral presentation in stressful or high-risk situations · Demonstrates effective listening skills, perceiving questions and comments accurately The consumer is King but the goal of the place is to make money. It is often helpful to think like a general manager and keep these questions in the back of your mind: 1. What are the ramifications of this idea/product/project on: manufacturing, distribution, purchasing, finance, other products within my company, government regulatory authorities, etc.? 2. How big is this idea? High sales? High profits? Is this idea the best way to be spending our time and money? 3. What do I know and what donât I know? What would I have to go out and learn about? Can my assumption be tested? What role does judgment have in this decision? 4. Is this promotion meant to: induce trial of the product; load up the consumerâs shelves with your product; provide continuity in my brand Interviewing for Brand Management - Case Questions Analytical thinking question examples These questions test your thought process and the way you structure your answer rather than your creativity. There is no right or wrong answer. An acceptable answer is framed logically and addresses the 4Ps and 4Cs. (4Ps:Product, Placement, Price, and Promotion and 4Cs: Consumer, Customer, Competition and Company) Did you consider all the alternatives? · Look into your refrigerator, your pantry or your closet. Imagine a new product. Walk me through the steps of launching that new product. · Congratulations! You were just promoted to Brand Manger on Hidden Valley Salad Dressing. During your first week on the job you learn your sales are down 20% versus last year. What are you going to look at as you prepare an explanation and action plan for your meeting with upper management next week? · You are Brand Manager on Pine-Sol while a competitor adds a superiority claim on its label. What do you do in response? · What are the 10 important questions you would ask about your brand on the first day of work as a new Brand Manager? Creativity/Flexibility question examples While thinking âon your feet,â can you step back to see the whole picture? Avoid throwing out a laundry list, prioritize the ideas you generate and only develop the best ideas further. Itâs not a brainstorming question, but more focused on how you develop your idea. · You need money to fix your car that just broke down. Itâs January and you live in Boston. What can you do to make the outdoor pool your Uncle Herbert left you in his will turn a profit? · If you were Brand Manager for a line of tennis balls and the government suddenly outlawed the game of tennis, what alternative uses for your product could you come up with to meet your sales objective? General Marketing question examples You are the Brand Manager for a product in a maturing category. The competition is not that different from your product. What can you do to increase sales? · Once again, you should do well with an answer that is structured logically and addresses the 4Ps and 4Cs. Some things to consider include: · Increase Brand Loyalty: (1) Increase your productâs level of performance against the brandâs basic benefit (example: Downy dispenser ball); (2) Better meet the range of consumer needs in the category (example: introduce a gel or spray form of the product); (3) Help the consumer find new uses for the product (examples: Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for the freezer, recipe cards for salad dressing mix); and finally, as a last resort, (4) Encourage the consumer to buy larger sizes of the brand so they buy more of your product and are in the marketplace less often to buy the competition. Brand Loyalty is a good place to start because it costs more to get consumers back to your brand if they stop buying it than it costs to attract new consumers. · If you donât have product superiority relative to the competition, find a consumer meaningful way to differentiate your brand and promote it. Example: Zest soap is an overall parity product versus most soap bars, but because it is synthetic, it is better in hard water conditions. Other soaps could make the same claim, but Zest âownsâ it. Zest ads promote that it is better in hard water while promotions distributed materials consumers could use at home to see if they had hard water and therefore needed Zest. · Under no circumstance should you start a price war. What makes a good commercial? · Begin by defining that a great commercial makes people want to run out and buy the product. Great commercials might not win awards, but they move cases. The most effective commercials tend to have (1) a clear dramatization of a unique, relevant product benefit; (2) a strong link between the brand and the benefit; and (3) strong convincingness and engagingness. Be ready to share an example of a current ad you think meets the criteria and one that does not. Where do you expect to be in 5 years? In 10? · You of course would never think of leaving the company. Think of your career in Brand Marketing in 3 stages: the learning phase, the applying phase and the leveraging phase. As you progress, you become less involved with the business itself and more involved in developing the people who report to you to run the business. · The learning phase is the first few years after graduation up to the Brand Manager role. As the name suggests, you typically do more learning about Brand and the way the company does business than actually managing and making decisions. · Typically, Brand professionals have the skills and experience required to be a successful manager within 3 years, and are at that time promoted to Brand Manager, the beginning role of the applying phase. Brand Mangers and Directors are expected to apply the knowledge they gained during their 5+ years in the industry to effect the brand in the marketplace. During the leveraging phase of your career, you impart your knowledge of how to run a business and develop people to impact the larger organization to deliver results. Directors and Vice Presidents at this level tend to have 10+ years of industry experience. Other possible questions Why should I hire you? If you were a brand, which brand would you be? Why? · They may look like two questions, but they have the same answer. Here is your chance to market yourself. If you did your homework, you know what they are looking for so now is the time to pull out an example that shows you have it. This is also your opportunity to differentiate yourself from other candidates. Share examples that show you have the skills they want, a proven track record, and consistent results. How would you determine how many 2-liter bottles of Coke would fit in an airplane? How would you determine how many gas stations there are in the USA? · While these questions are more typical of consulting interviews, you should be ready to showcase your logical thinking. Since there is no right answer attack the question, explaining your assumptions along the way. Be prepared to defend your assumptions as they are challenged. Talk about a well-marketed product (e.g., VW, Gap) Talk about a product that isnât marketed well (e.g., IBM PC)