Interviews for marketing jobs can often be a blend of traditional competency based questioning combined with more specialist questioning relating to your previous marketing experience. It’s worth considering some or all of the below:

1. Why do you want to work for us?

As long as you’ve researched the company correctly this is where you get to show off how diligent you’ve been. You can, for example explain how you’ve always wanted the opportunity to work with a company that is a leader in innovative products. Research the company website, understand the recent events and try to get the interviewer talking about the topic. A dialogue is so much better than a Q&A in an interview session. Read the annual reports, look and understand the product and service set and gain an understanding of the structure of the company. Competitor analysis is also useful so you can demonstrate your holistic understanding of the sector!

2. Not every marketing campaign works out as planned. Give me an example of one you’ve worked on where that’s been the case.

It’s vital you can demonstrate an understanding of why a plan went wrong and how you learnt from the experience. Campaigns fail due to poor research and groundwork, because the planning was ineffective, because the objectives and goals weren’t fulfilled or followed through and sometimes just because of communication failures. You should be open and honest about the campaign failure, accept what responsibility and accountability falls at your door but most importantly examine what was learned, and preferably cite another campaign where the same mistakes were avoided.

3. Project handling. Are you always on time and budget?

Focus on your planning and organising skills to get the best return on the marketing budget. Detail what controls were put in place to track and stay on top of expenditure and how plans were adjusted when necessary. Discuss your ability to react quickly and accurately to meet new demands and constraints.

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

Another chance for you to make sure your interviewer knows you’ve done your homework. To answer this question well, you’re seeking to identify the company’s product / service appeal and then qualify how the marketing strategy has worked to support this. An example might be how Apple produced a technically excellent mp3 player and through excellent marketing strategy turned it into a cultural icon.

5. Give me an example of excellent marketing.

Choose a favoured  brand and describe it’s current position and target audience. You may find it helpful to refer to the marketing mix (Four P’s – product, price, place and promotion ) to describe how your chosen example supports it’s position.

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

This is your chance to drive the point home by putting your skill and experience to actively market yourself. Your Creative Mettle consultant will have given you a good steer on what the client ideally seeks and it’s likely that you will have picked up further clues during the interview. Choose your example carefully, identify the characteristics that you share with it and use it to differentiate yourself from the masses by flexing your creative muscles.