MARKETING RESEARCH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Question 1. What Is Marketing Research?

Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues
relating to marketing products and services.

Question 2. Why Is Marketing Research Important?

Marketing research is important simply because we--web marketers-- need such information to
make our marketing decisions. The more accurate the information we have, the less likely we are
to make mistakes in our decisions.

Question 3. What Exactly Is Web Marketing Research?

Web marketing research is about conducting research (usually statistical analyses) to understand
web marketing issues. The process of a research project includes: finding a market issue,
translate it into a marketing research project, design survey questionnaire, collect information
from a survey, conduct analyses and report the findings and marketing implementations.

Question 4. What Is The Difference Between Marketing And Advertising?

Advertising is paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified
sponsor the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and
potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities
intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer
of products.

Question 5. What Is A Press Release?

Press release also known as a news release is a written or recorded communication for news
media for announcing something claimed as having news value.

Question 6. What Is A News Article?

A news article is a gathering of facts written by journalist published in the news or the print
media.

Question 7. What Is Photo Editing?

The photographs affecting negatively to the public sentiment and psychology should be avoided.
Thus before publishing a photograph in any media it needs to be edited, whether the photo has
some massage to public and should consider the public interest.
Question 8. What Is The Purpose Of Vrrp?
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is a non-proprietary redundancy protocol described
in RFC 3768 designed to increase the availability of the default gateway servicing hosts on the
same subnet. This increased reliability is achieved by advertising a "virtual router" (an abstract
representation of master and backup routers acting as a group) as a default gateway to the host(s)
instead of one physical router. Two or more physical routers are then configured to stand for the
virtual router, with only one doing the actual routing at any given time.

If the current physical router that is routing the data on behalf of the virtual router fails, an
arrangement is made for another physical router to automatically replace it. The physical router
that is currently forwarding data on behalf of the virtual router is called the master router.
Physical routers standing by to take over from the master router in case something goes wrong
are called backup routers.

Question 9. How Does One Come Up With Professionally Made Marketing Materials?
Have a clear vision of your target market and carefully assess the products you are offering. The
advertising materials have to communicate effectively who you are and what you offer.

Question 11. How Can You Use Word-of-mouth As A Marketing Tool?

You can generate it by offering a new, good quality and unique product or service that is
reasonably prices.

Question 12. List The Applications Of Bluetooth?

► Bluetooth is wireless control of communication between a cell phone and a hands free headset
or car kit. This is the most popular use.
► Wireless networking between PCs in a confined space and where little bandwidth is required.
► Wireless communications with PC input devices such as mouse and keyboards and output
devices such as printers.
► Transfer of files between devices via OBEX.
► Transfer of contact details, calendar appointments, and reminders between devices via OBEX.
► Replacement of traditional wired serial communications in test equipment, GPS receivers and
medical equipment.
► For remote controls where infrared was traditionally used.
► Sending small advertisements from Bluetooth enabled advertising hoardings to other,
discoverable, Bluetooth devices.
► Wireless control of a games console, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 will both use
Bluetooth technology for their wireless controllers.
► Ending commands and software to the upcoming LEGO Mindstorms NXT instead of infrared
Question 13. What Is Different Between Advertisements And Sales?
Advertisement-means creating awareness about the product to the world.
Sales-means make available that product in the market for using it by the consumers for an
exchange of monitory value.

Question 14. What Is The Truth Involved In Advertising Rules Which Applies To Advertisers?
Advertisers should always ensure the following is kept in mind before advertising.
Advertising must always be highly truthful non-deceptive.
Ads should be a fair deal.
Advertisers should always keep backups on the claims and have evidence for their advertising.

Question 15. What Are The Evidences One Should Hold For The Claims They Get On The Ads
They Put Up?
Whenever company runs an ad it should have a reasonable basis for the claims they get, which is
the evidences for the claims that they receive. These claims must be healthy and safe claims and
which has a competent and scientific evidences that is evaluated by qualified people and can be
reviewed, modified, and can make additions to it.

Question 16. What Do You If You Run Out Of Ideas For New Ad?
One should always be creative when you are in advertising field. When you are running out of
ideas refer internet, forums, open source ad sense, and blogs, advanced search engine options,
use various communication groups, and approach them for to get ideas.

Question 19. What Kinds Of Penalties Are Involved Against A Company That Runs A
Deceptive Ad?
Penalties are considered on the nature of violation the company has done by using a deceptive
ad.
Usually penalties could be as follow:
Civil penalties
Cease and desist orders
Consumer redress
Monetary compensation

Question 20. What Makes An Advertisement Unfair?

If it is likely to cause a substantial injury to the customer, which consumer cannot avoid. If it not
beneficial to the customer
Question 21. Whichever Company Has Offered A Money Back Guarantee, Very Few People In
The Market Claim Back. Should We Still Have The Proof To Support Companies Advertising
Claims?
Yes, Company should have the records and the proofs to support their company’s advertising
claims, as it is not a substitute for substantiation.

Question 22. Are There Any Limits On Ads For Alcoholic Beverages Can Run And How They
Can Exhibit?
The ads shown for alcoholic beverages should be very truthful to the best of the knowledge
unlike other ads. In addition to these alcohol ads, contents or placement may not be directed to
underage customers. Few broadcasters place additional restrictions as to when and where these
alcohol ads should run.

Question 23. When A Company Distributes The Catalog Of Products Manufactured By Other
Companies, What Will Be The Main Responsibility To Ensure The Accuracy Of The Content
Mentioned In The Catalog?
Usually people tend to repeat what other companies say about their product, which also includes
the companies, which has online catalog. One should have the proper material back up the
claims. Hence once should ensure that the company ad catalog is not a duplicate of the other
company’s ad and the same content is not mentioned.

Question 24. What Do You Know About Internet Advertising?

Today Internet is one of the easiest means to advertise which in turn helps marketers to consume.
There are certain rules, which have to be followed and applied as similar to other forms of
advertising. Those rules will help business and consumers to maintain the internet credibility,
which is a highly effective advertising medium.

Question 25. How Important Disclaimer Or Disclosure Does Should Be In Ads?

The information should be presented very clearly and conspicuously so that the same will be
noticed by the customer and understand the same. A very neat fine print is very important on the
bottom of the print ad.

Question 26. How Disclaimer And Disclosure Does Work Online?

Regardless of the means of the advertisement whether printing ads or mail or online the policy of
disclaimer and disclosure remains same. It must be clear and conspicuous though online
advertising special guidance, which has to be followed as also few issues like popup windows,
hyperlinks, scrolling and banner ads should be looked.
Question 27. What Responsibility Does A Company Have To Make Sure That Advertising
Prices Are Accurate?
In many jurisdictions, companies are legally required to charge no more than the advertised or
shelf price for a product, so good pricing practices are important for both customer satisfaction
and a company's bottom line.

Question 28. How Much Of An Advertised Product Is A Retail Store Required To Stock?
According to the FTC's Retail Food Store Rule, grocers must offer rain checks or product
substitutes of comparable value when they run out of advertised items. They also can comply by
ordering quantities of the item sufficient to meet reasonably anticipated demand or by disclosing
in ads that items are available only in limited quantities or only at some stores. Although the
specific terms of the Rule apply only to retail food stores, other companies advertising products
available in limited quantity or only at some stores may want to make similar disclosures to
reduce the risk of deception.

Question 29. How Does The Ftc Regulate Ads For Cigarettes And Smokeless Tobacco?
The FTC can take action if an ad for cigarettes or a smokeless tobacco product is deceptive or
unfair. The FTC also enforces various federal laws requiring health warnings on print ads for
cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, as well as on packaging. In addition, federal law prohibits the
advertising of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and little cigars on radio, TV, or other form of
electronic media regulated by the Federal Communications Commission.

Question 30. Who Can Advertise On Any Site?

Anyone who offers a product or service that saves time, corrals clutter, helps people be more
productive, and makes life Easier -- either at work or at home. We also welcome companies that
offer innovative business development solutions for Entrepreneurs -- both Professional
Organizers and other business owners who visit our site looking for tools that will help them be
more effective.

Question 31. How Does The Ftc Decide What Cases To Bring?
The FTC weighs several factors, including FTC jurisdiction. Although, the FTC has jurisdiction
over ads for most products and services, Congress has given other government agencies the
authority to investigate advertising by airlines, banks, insurance companies, telephone and cable
companies, and companies that sell securities and commodities.

With the geographic scope of the advertising campaign, the FTC concentrates on national
advertising and refers local matters to state, county or city agencies. The extent to which, an ad
represents a pattern of deception, rather than an individual dispute between a consumer and a
business or a dispute between two competitors.
Question 32. What Kind Of Advertising Claims Does The Ftc Focus On?
The FTC pays closest attention to ads that make claims about health or safety, Such as "ABC
Sunscreen will reduce the risk of skin cancer”. "ABC Water Filters remove harmful chemicals
from tap water”. "ABC Chainsaw's safety latch reduces the risk of injury”. Ads that make claims
that consumers would have trouble evaluating for them, such as "ABC Refrigerators will reduce
your energy costs by 25%”. "ABC Gasoline decreases engine wear". "ABC Hairspray is safe for
the ozone layer”. Ads that make subjective claims or claims that consumers can judge for them
(for example, "ABC Cola tastes great") receive less attention from the FTC.

Question 33. My Company Offers A Money-back Guarantee. Very Few People Have Ever
Asked For Their Money Back. Must We Still Have Proof To Support Our Advertising Claims?
Yes. Offering a money-back guarantee is not a substitute for substantiation. Advertisers still
must have proof to support their claims.

Question 34. What Kind Of Evidence Must A Company Have To Support The Claims In Its
Ads?
Before a company runs an ad, it has to have a "reasonable basis" for the claims. A "reasonable
basis" means objective evidence that supports the claim. The kind of evidence depends on the
claim. At a minimum, an advertiser must have the level of evidence that it says that it has. For
example, the statement "Two out of three doctors recommend ABC Pain Reliever" which should
be supported by a reliable survey to that effect.

If the ad is not specific, the FTC looks at several factors to determine what level of proof is
necessary; including what experts in the field think is needed to support the claim. In most cases,
ads that make health or safety claims must be supported by "competent and reliable scientific
evidence" -- tests, studies, or other scientific evidence that has been evaluated by people
qualified to review it. In addition, any tests or studies must be conducted using methods those
experts in the field accept as accurate.

Question 35. What Makes An Advertisement Deceptive?

According to the FTC's Deception Policy Statement, an ad is deceptive if it contains a statement
-- or omits information – that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the
circumstances; and is "material" -- that is, important to a consumer's decision to buy or use the
product.

Question 36. How Do I Know I Am Reaching My Target Audience?

To improve your ability to reach your target audience, consider using demographic, geographic,
or psychographic profiles.
Question 37. What Factors Should Be Considered When Choosing A Media Vehicle?
There are six factors to consider when choosing a media plan. The factors like budget, target
audience, and sales objectives.

Question 38. What Is More Important: Reach Or Frequency?

Both are important, you are marketing plan and sales objectives should dictate the level of each.

Question 39. How To Make Certain That My Ad Will Pull?

While there are creative factors that influence ad effectiveness, marketing considerations, should
also be considered.

Question 40. How Can We Evaluate The Efficiency Of Different Media?

The true evaluative tool to compare the efficiency of one medium to another is cost per thousand
or CPM.

Question 41. How Can We Learn More About, Target Audience?

Understanding the target customer guides us in making the right advertising decisions, from what
to say to which medium to use.

Question 42. How Can We Evaluate The Effectiveness Of Advertising?

In order to determine the success of advertising, we must have measures in place that can
determine the return of advertising investment

Question 43. How Can We Know How Much To Spend On Advertising?

To know how much to spend on Advertising, first we need to establish our advertising budget,
and then we should set our monthly expenditures accordingly.

Question 45. When Designing Advertising Banners, Is There A Size Used On The Internet?
Yes, here are the standard banner and button sizes used on the Internet.
Standard Banner Sizes: 468x60, 234x60, 120x240
Standard Button Sizes: 125x125, 120x60, 88x31

Question 46. What, In Your Opinion, Is The Most Effective Form Of Internet Advertising?
In my opinion, ezine advertising is the most effective form of advertising used on the Internet.
Not only is it cost-effective, but it also provides a great way to reach your target audience.

The key to using ezine advertising effectively is to target your audience and track your response.
You must test the effectiveness of both your ad and the publication in which you are advertising.
This will enable you to determine which ads are pulling the most response, and which
publications are providing you with the highest response rates.
Question 47. What Is Involved In Producing A Commercial?
There are as many approaches to producing commercials, as there are commercials, so the sky is
the limit Production of a typical: 30 commercial involves planning, copy writing, shooting time,
editing time, design, and production of graphics, an announcer, and more. The value of
production varies greatly depending on your concept, and the technical manipulations necessary
to produce it.

Question 48. How Would You Involve In Yourself In A Book Club?

Get together in a core group - It is much easier to get involved in a book club with two or three
people who already have some connection. Sometimes you might find people to joining book
club right away.

Set a regular meeting time - As you can imagine, it is often difficult to coordinate that many
schedules. Go ahead and set a regular meeting time and date for your book club with your core
group. By setting the time, you avoid playing favorites when working around schedules and are
up front about what commitment is required.

Look for Advertisement a book clubs- The best advertising is often word of mouth. You could
also look for a book club in other print media.

Learning about Establish ground rules - Get together with your potential book club members and
learn about ground rules should include how books are chosen, who hosts, who leads
discussions, and what kind of commitment is expected.

Question 49. What Is Disadvantages Of Advertising?

Disadvantages of advertisings are:-

Effect on children which advertise depends upon underwear, & such all things.
As well as money wasting.

Question 50. Why In All Watch/clock Advertisement, Time Is Shown Approx 10:10 Only?
It was to remember one of the famous scientist's anniversary, who was closely related to the
making of watch/clocks.

Question 53. Who Has The Full Authority To Control Over Media?
media planner

Question 54. Why Do Online Advertising?

Because this is economical and 24hours in show the client
Question 55. What Is Development Communication?
Use of communication technology, mass media and different channels/media of communication
for promotion of health, social development/rural development issues is coined as development
communication.

Question 56. Can A Mba Graduate Become A Journalist?

yes one should have a passion for good creative writing and a way of presentation start with
small news channel or papers as part time writers or join the company as sales professional learn
the necessary skills from people in the organization and make your way in the department and
remember journalism is and art and not a science all u need is passion and a skill.

Question 59. What Is Yellow Journalism? What Are Its Effects?

Yellow journalism means sensationalizing news items and other facts to increase circulation.
They are generally not backed by verifiable data. With the separation of editorial team from
financiers yellow journalism has become widespread

Question 61. What Is Search Engine Marketing?

Search engine marketing is an umbrella term referring to all activities utilized to generate
visibility in search engine results in order to increase revenue. Common strategies and tactics
include search engine optimization (SEO), search engine and directory submission, link
development, pay-per-click (PPC) management, shopping feeds, affiliate marketing and online
public relations (promotion via blogs, ezines, threaded forums, newsgroups, discussion lists and
chat).

Question 62. Why Should I Care About Search Engine Marketing?

Research indicates that a high percentage of the developed world is online, so the odds your
potential customers, partners, employees and shareholders are also online is very high. Not only
is search engine marketing one of the fastest growing and popular new marketing channels
available, it’s also the most cost-effective (as compared with both online and offline channels
like email, direct mail and broadcast). Search engine marketing both an excellent avenue for
brand-building and cost-effective at generating leads and online sales. If your company doesn’t
currently have a search engine marketing strategy, you’re behind the curve. Do a search for your
own company, competitors and industry terms and see for yourself.

Question 63. How Do I Determine If Search Engine Marketing Is Right For My Company?
Unless your company is headquartered in a cave and your customers are other cavemen, it’s very
likely that your company will benefit from some aspect of search engine marketing, whether it be
search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Regardless of whether you
are interested in generating awareness, new recruits, strategic partners, investors, leads or sales,
search engine marketing offers an opportunity to improve your bottom line.
Question 64. How Do We Measure The Success Of Search Engine Marketing Efforts?
Search engine marketing efforts are highly measurable. If your objective is to generate
awareness, you can track “impressions” and “clicks” on organic and paid search engine listings.
If your objective is to measure brand preference or performance of text ad creative, you can
measure “click through” and “conversion” rates. If your objective is to generate qualified leads,
you can track online registrations (for newsletters, events or white papers), downloads (trials or
demos) or email inquiries. If your objective is sales, you can track ecommerce sales or offline
sales via printable coupons or phone call tracking.

Question 65. How Do We Determine If We Should Manage Search Engine Marketing Activities
In-house Or Outsource To An Sem Vendor?
Generally speaking, most companies prefer to outsource their search engine marketing efforts to
SEM professionals to ensure their programs are properly managed and remain cutting-edge.
Larger companies tend to have an in-house resource like a Webmaster or Internet Marketing
Manager who is responsible for implementing search engine marketing programs, but often
times, this person outsources the day-to-day SEM activities to a trusted vendor to free up their
time educate and manage internal resources, develop long-term strategies and to create optimized
content. Factors influencing the decision process include objectives, timeline, available
marketing budget and internal resources.

Question 70. What Is The Difference Between Email Marketing And Search Engine Marketing?
Email marketing is used much differently than search marketing. Email can be used for demand
creation, and as a friendly notification of the products and services you provide. Search
marketing is more efficient for acquiring visitors, and is based on the premise that the visitor is
looking for what you offer.

Question 71. What Is The Difference Between Pay-per-click (ppc) And Pay-for-inclusion (pfi)?
PPC is much like advertising, and are those links that come up when you enter a keyword in a
search field. Also known as sponsored links or recommended links, the advertiser pays a fee to
the search engine every time it is clicked on. PFI is more like paying for a web site to
immediately be considered for indexing. Using PPC and PFI can significantly increase the
number of visitor you get. You can help you with both.

Question 72. What Is A Natural Search?

Also known as an organic search, these are the search results that most people think of when they
use a search engine. Unlike a sponsored link or a paid for placement, natural search results get
presented as a direct result of the search engine's indexing and search algorithms. Usually you do
not pay for a natural search listing.
Question 76. What Is Search Engine Spam, Or Seo Spam?
In the search engine world, spam is defined as the manipulation of a web page to give it an
artificial boost in the search engine rankings. Generally, spam is what the search engines say it
is. I.e., it is defined by the search engines themselves. Each of the major search engines provide
specific guidelines describing what webmasters should and should not do to their web pages in
order to achieve a better search engine ranking, though that has not always been the case.

Question 77. What Is Hidden Text?

Hidden text is textual content which your visitors cannot see, but which is still readable by the
search engines. The idea is to load a Web page with keywords and keyword phrases that would
be unsightly to visitors but that would improve the page's rankings in the search engine results,
and to do so without letting your visitors see the text. Hidden text is identified as search spam by
each of the major search engines.

Question 78. What Are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page, after the title tag.
They take a variety of forms and serve a variety of purposes, but in the context of search engine
optimization when people refer to meta tags, they are usually referring to the meta description
tag and the meta keywords tag.

Question 84. What Exactly Is A Spider?

A spider is a piece of software that follows links throughout the Internet, grabbing content from
sites and adding it to search engine databases.

Spiders follow links from one page to another and from one site to another. That is the primary
reason why links to your site are so critical. Getting links to your website from other websites
will give the search engine spiders more opportunities to find and re-index your site. The more
times they find links to your site, the more times they will stop by and visit. This has been true
since spiders began. Recently there has been an incredible amount of attention paid to links.
That's because Google came clean and said in public that the number and quality of links to your
site will directly impact its rankings in the search results.

Question 87. Which Is The Most Used Search Engine?

Google is by far the most used search engine today. In addition to providing Web search at its
home page, Google.com, Google also provides web search results to several of the most popular
Internet destinations, including Yahoo! [Note: As of 02/18/2004, Yahoo! no longer uses Google
as its default search engine.] and AOL. Google does far more than 200 million (>200,000,000)
searches every day through Google.com. That number was reported by Google all the way back
in 2001, and they have consistently refused to update it, but you can be assured that Google does
substantially more than 200,000,000 searches every day through Google.com.
Question 89. How Can Telemarketing Be Monitored?
There are various ways of tracking results. Anderson Stockley Associates can provide a manual
lead sheet for future use or a computerized spread sheet could be designed to suit the needs of the
client and project. Either is an excellent way of tracking future leads and results.

Question 92. How Large Is Marketing Connections?

By design, Marketing Connections maintains a call center operation consisting of 75
workstations with room for controlled expansion.

Question 94. Do Asa Work On Commission Or Per Appointment Payment?

No. There is no doubt that pressure selling over the telephone can achieve numerous unqualified
leads, appointments or sales. We are not that kind of business. We offer a quality service using
experienced staff who represent companies professionally when working on their behalf. The
leads, appointments, information or sales generated are qualified and productive.

Question 103. What Is Market Research? How Can A Company Benefit From It?
The systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing
situation facing an organization is marketing research. Marketing research is an input for making
better and informed decisions.

Question 104. What Are The Various Steps Involved In Market Research?
The steps involved in the market research process include: defining the problem and research
objectives; developing the research plan; implementing the research plan and interpreting and
reporting the findings.

Question 105. What Tools Do You Use For Market Research?

Tools of market research include commercial data sources, online databases and Internet data
sources, observational research, survey research, experimental research, focus group
interviewing, and in-depth interviewing.

Question 106. What Do You Know About Market Intelligence?

Marketing intelligence is the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information
about competitors and developments in the marketing environment. A marketing intelligence
system gathers, analyzes and distributes information about the company’s competitive
technological, customer, economic, social, political and regulatory environments. Its goal is to
improve strategic decision-making, assess and track competitors’ actions and provide early
warning of opportunities and threats.