21 Strategic Marketing Interview Questions and Answers

What are the ways through which the pricing strategy can be matched with value proposition?

To match the pricing strategy with the strong proposition the company needs to have a strong message that needs to be sent to the market. The product needs to be consistent with the value and the services need to be exceptionally well. The value proposition is required and it needs to have operational efficiency and the price require the competitiveness. The price is such that it is neither high nor low but it matches exactly the value of the product. Low price sends wrong message to the customers about the product. The price strategy is such that it requires providing right services to the right customers.

What are the steps involved in strategic marketing process?

Strategic marketing involves the development of the prospects and communication with the customers to sell and manage the services provided to the customers. The steps involved are as follows:

- Develop the strategy to market the product to various customers
- Creation of tools and processes to implement the product
- Generating of the messages and managing the customers according to their involvement with the customers
- Using tools to develop the strategy into implementation
- Recruiting people for the development phase and for marketing of the product after it is built.
- Selecting the correct vendor to whom the product needs to be sold.

What are the different types of values used in value proposition of marketing strategy?

Strategic marketing consists of many key elements but out of those the most important key element is the value proposition. This is used to show the value of the product that is being marketed to the customer. This consists of three types of values and these are as follows:

- OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: this focuses mainly on the product and its price. This provides the customer the best price in the market that will be affordable to them and providing good features in the products as well.

- PRODUCT LEADERSHIP: this focuses on the quality of the products. Every customer needs the product to be good and of high quality so that the production can be increased of that product in the market. This brings the competitiveness in the market to release the best quality product and sell it.

- CUSTOMER INTIMACY: this focus on the flexibility of the products. Customers are attracted to the products that have high customization options and provide solutions to their problems.

What are the steps involved in competitive positioning strategy?

Competitive positioning strategy is required in every company and it is the foundation of the business. This allows the latest technology to be used and expand the business dynamically with the rising demand for the new products by the customers. The steps involved are:

- Select an appropriate profile to market your business: this includes the documentation about the competitors and positioning of them in the market.
- Determining the type/stage of the market the business is in. This includes the types as introductory, growth, mature, or declining stage.
- Segmenting market to understand the overall difficulty levels of the market and thinking from the customer’s point of view.
- Listing the needs of the customers and giving them what they need.

What are the steps involved in dealing with market competition?

It is tough to deal with market competition as it is dynamically changing and include lots of changes that need to be incorporated if a company has to survive. The steps involved in this are as follows:

- Evaluate the competition and the competitors.
- List down the competitors that are in the same business profile as your business.
- List down the solutions that are being provided by them and not by you.
- Rate the business according to the list which you have prepared and find out the direct competitors on the basis of efficiency, product leadership and customer dealings.
- Stake your business’s position in market and identify the area where you can grow and put down the opponent.
- Determine the weak areas of the business done by the competitors and find the opportunity to meet the requirements before other competitors.
- Define the value proposition for the business.

How does the brand strategy followed by the company?

Brand is a name or a symbol that represents one company distinctly from another company or brand. This brand allows the customer to have trust on the services you provide. It includes the logo or the slogan of the company that make the customer to have trust on you. The brand interacts with the customer’s everyday and it will be including the following components:

- Images that is conveyed using the brand
- The messages that is used to sell your product using the brand
- Representing of the employees interacting with the customers.

Why is branding crucial for the company?

Branding is required by the company to sell the products and services to the market. It is very important factor to stay in competition. It brings the competitive edge as well as value proposition in the market and allows the company to grow more. The brand allows the customer to have trust on you and the brands that are unique catches the eye of the customers. This represents the valuable time that customer put to have something on your store. The brand generates the revenue for the company and makes the company stand in the market alone.

What is the best neutral case in strategic marketing?

The best natural case is associated with the strategic marketing and depends on the customer’s prospects and what the company is delivering to them. The customers in this case have the best consistent view and impression of the product of the company. This is the case where you give the product to the customer and customer consumes it. It allows you to close the deal more quickly because of the prospects which you have is clearly conveying your views and ideas. This is the way you can ask the customers to trust you and pay you for the services which you are providing to them.

What is the worst case scenario in strategic marketing?

The worst case scenario explains the brand strategy that you follow. It shows the communication with the customers when the company doesn’t have anything to show and provide them. The customers can’t be convinced as at this stage the company doesn’t have anything to show to them and there is no brand strategy that exists. To compete with the best companies around the brand strategy need to be strong and it should have very close prospective customers. In this case the profits gained from the customers are very less due to the fact that there is no proper marketing of that particular product.

What are the strategies required to attract customers?

The strategies required by the businesses to attract more customers are as follows:

- Developing of the brand strategy with some benefits that needs to be provided with the product
- Listing all the features and benefits for the products and the services that are associated with it.
- Convincing customers for the product by providing them features and a comparison between all the other businesses similar to yours.
- Showing them the benefits that will attract a larger party.
- Identifying their needs and making emotional attachments with them to sell your products to them.
- Building strategies to tap the emotions of the customers and show them the best in your product.

What are the distribution channels that exist while marketing the product?

Distribution Channels are the pathways that allow the companies to sell their products and services to the larger range of customers or to end-users. There are different channels that exist from single to multiple and these can include the following:

- Direct/sales team: this is the team that gets employed and they can be specialized in either one or many different products according to the customer’s requirements.
- Direct/internet: This is the direct selling through the internet after setting up your own store online.
- Wholesaler/distributor: Company buying the products in bulk and reselling them to the retailers at smaller volumes.
- Consultant: allows the relationship to develop with companies and they provide the services that are advanced. They can influence the customer to buy the product.

What is the relationship in direct to end users?

Direct to end users signifies that the services and the products will be available directly, on demand to the end user. The sales team of the company always talks to the customers and try to convince them to buy the product from the company directly. This direct to end user doesn’t involve in any sale instead the product is being sold by the company directly to the consumers by having an online store. This can be done by having several marketing campaigns regarding the company’s product and various distribution channels to distribute the strategy. The campaigns can be put up on different websites or on those websites that like to promote by taking some profit in it.

What can be done to sell a product through a VAR (Value added reseller) Dealer network?

The selling of the product can be done by selling it directly to the company that comes in geographical network of the dealer. The dealer bundles the product with the service that is being offered with it and sell it to the end user. The end user has the option now to re-sell the product again. The dealer that service the company is known as the value added product. This product has the valued added of the reseller of the product. The dealers are the customers that are buying your product. The support that is given to run their marketing campaigns and materials will also be helpful in increasing the sales.

What are the steps required to have a good distribution program?

Good distribution program focuses on the end user needs and to create such a program following steps need to be followed:

- Find the services that are required by the user and can be utilized on a local dealer network
- Find the reseller program that provide those services and can be used to customize the options by the user.
- Allow the user to have various options to create his customization like providing e-commerce website to fulfill the rising demand of the customers. Allow users to sell directly their product by having an easy option for customization.
- Building a plan to have a specialized team to look after the requirement of the customers and close the deals according to the communication with the deals directly.
- Understanding the need and delivering it according to the market programs to maximize the profit and the revenue.

What is the best case in generating the revenue by using good distribution program?

When one or more distribution channels are used then the revenue will also grow quickly if the requirement of the customer is met and the user will be attracted to the services that are being provided by your business. This way more end users can be reached to share the information regarding the services and their needs online. If the customers are reached through wholesalers, other channel partners then the product can be marketed to more people, this way more revenue can be generated and the program can be marketed to more customers.

What are the distribution strategies to be adopted to deliver the services?

The distribution strategy is the main part of the marketing where the product needs to be delivered to the customers and the right services need to be provided for the growth of customer’s market. The end users that require information about the company and the product are the best match and they can be dealt directly through a sales force.

A channel can be built of qualified resellers and consultants to provide convincing prices for the market by seeing the size of the market the customer wants to set up.

The sell can be direct if the buying process will be known and the customer’s needs are known in the field of wholesale/retail structure.

What is the purpose of building a channel?

Building a channel is a great way to allow the customers to have trust on you and your services that is being provided with the product. The building of a channel includes having one or more partners involved in a business and selling the product as a collaborative entity.

This approach is good for small markets and the goal is to provide services and reports to the customers to convince them to buy the products.

Building a channel also allows the meeting of the larger goal to be simpler and can be achieved in very less time. This doesn’t require much of the training and promotions of the events can be supported very easily. This also allows in increment of the sales and attracting more customers.

What are minimizing price conflicts in strategic marketing?

Minimize price conflicts is used in multiple channels where the price at each step is mapped out from the customers channel and include a fair profit for all the people who are involved in this. The comparison of the prices is being done that the end user has to pay. Users will have many partners to choose from to buy at the lowest possible price. This sometimes becomes the concern for many partners who are involved in buying and selling of their own product or in the same market as others. This conflict which is also known as pricing conflict and it is common in marketing, but it can destroy your strategy of selling the product.

Describe the “4 Ps” in marketing related to pricing?

Price in marketing includes the 4 Ps that is product, price, place, and promotion. The marketers in the company never get involved directly with the pricing. This pricing is having many short and long term factors. These factors are as follows:

- Reflecting the price to the competitors and considering the pay for the offering of the customer.
- Enabling the revenue and market shares to reach out to the customers.
- Maximizing the profits and providing the services that is offered by your business only.
- Making a stronger strategy to bring more users by giving them competitive analysis

What are ways in which revenues and profits can be maximized?

There are three different ways in which the revenues and the profits can be maximized by changing the price strategy which the companies are having. The ways or strategies are as follows:

- HIGHEST PRICE: companies tend to reduce the hourly rate to gain more clients.

- Companies tend to hire more consultants for the company’s strategy.

- AVERAGE PRICE: companies charges a premium price for a product or the product that doesn’t have income generating features. Small prices are set to increase the revenues and profit for a product and overall for a company.

- LOWEST PRICE: this is being done when the market of the product is very down and customers are very less for the business. The company fails to maintain operational efficiency and cost.

More Practice Questions

1. What are the factors involved in assessing a marketing audit?
2. What are the effective measures taken to ensure the development of good marketing strategy?
3. What does the brand of a company reflect? How does it help in communicating with the audience?
4. What are the measurements to be taken to find out the most profitable customers?
5. How can the target audience be found using the strategic marketing?
6. What are the different qualities of a brand that separates a company from other competitors?
7. What are the parameters that should be kept in mind before creating a marketing campaign that is targeted only to the desired audience?
8. How to find out the customers problems regarding a company’s services?
9. What are the strategies used to adjust the marketing plans according to the customers interest?
10. What are the possible ways in which a brand can be introduced and promoted in the market with the use of right resources?
11. What are the benefits given with a product to attract large number of customers?
12. What is the difference between up-selling and cross selling products?
13. What are the different services provided with the product to increase the sales?
14. How does up-selling and down selling differ from each other?
15. What are the messages provided with the product for marketing effectively?
16. What are the possible methods that have to be applied to reach the target audience?
17. What are the means by which the target audience is identified? What kind of marketing messages should be written to these audiences?
18. What are the different traditional marketing channels available?
19. What are the modern marketing channels that can be used to increase the marketing?
20. What are the marketing strategies that help a company give its best result?
21. If a format already exists, is it possible to change the format if demand arises?
22. What are the other applications required to promote the product?
23. How to keep a check on the performance of the applications present in the market?
24. What is the procedure followed to creatively design the ad for a given product to make it sell-able?
25. What are the offers that are generally provided with the products?
26. What are the tools that are present that help in marketing campaigns?
27. What are the competitive tools that are required to test the functionality of the marketing strategy?
28. How should the strategy be defined to meet customers need?
29. What all provisions should be provided to the user to promote a product?
30. What are the characteristics used to define the overall prospect?
31. What are the factors to be kept in mind while defining the marketing activity?
32. What are the parameters taken to interact with the customers and convince the customer to go for the product?
33. What are the documents given to the customers in case of emergency?
34. How can you easily define the goals of a company to the customers?
35. What is the purpose of USP?
36. Why it is essential to define USP first?
37. What are the plans made to gather the information from the customer about there obstacles and requirements?
38. How to define the geographic domain?
39. What are the strategies that will help a company to compete in the market?
40. What changes should be done to the marketing strategies to have a better growth of a company?
41. How to develop a goal statement to help a company make a plan in future?
42. What are the required questions that should to be asked from the customers?
43. What does positioning means in marketing?
44. What does positioning includes?
45. What are the different components of marketing?
46. How does public relations related to strategic marketing?
47. What are the 4 P's used in marketing?
48. How are they used in relation to a company’s business?
49. What is the strategic marketing cycle?
50. What are the phases involved in it?
51. Explain each phase used in it?