Real Time Business Communications Interview Questions with Answers PDF
• Briefly Describe Any One Of The Communication Models Discussed In The Textbook And/or LectureLasswell’s (1948) model describes communication as a one-way transmission of messages. The model shows the ‘who’ as the ‘source’, the ‘what’ as the message, the ‘how’ as the channel, the ‘whom’ as the destination and the ‘effect’ as the outcome.
• Describe Three Of The Of The Tests You Can Use To Enable Ethical Decision-making
Are we rationalizing:
Identify if you are rationalising, that is justifying your reasons with excuses such as: Everybody is doing it
It’s not illegal
They did it to me
If I don’t do it someone else will
The golden rule:
Treat others as you would want to be treated
If you wouldn’t like a particular action or behaviour to happen to you, then don’t do it to others
Publicity test:
After making a decision, it would then be publicised for anyone to see or read about such as family, friends etc. If you are happy and confident in what you have done and do not feel any guilt then it is a good test to use, if not, then the decision was not ethical.
• What Is The Role Of ‘i’ Statements In The Communication Process? Illustrate With An Example
I’ statements are a way of sharing emotions and letting others know how their behaviour is perceived and how it affects you. One of the most effective ways to begin assertive statements is to say ‘I feel … when …’ For example, the message may be: ‘I feel annoyed when you don’t let me know you will be late.’ People can express their needs and wants with an ‘I’ message. It shows their personal involvement plus a willingness to share their feelings. It also lets them own their own reactions. 4. Identify and explain the three techniques of persuasion as outlined in the textbook
Three techniques:
Rhetorical mix
Features-benefits mix
Appeals to emotion
Rhetorical mix:
Persuasion involves careful framing of arguments and a mixture of the three types of rhetorical appeal. Good communicators have the ability to use and combine the three types of appeal appropriate to the audience, subject matter and context.
logos, or the appeal to logic (price, variety, product information) pathos, or the appeal to the emotions (entertainment potential of the website, sensory appeal through audio/visuals, intuitiveness of navigation and the extent to which the website can be personalised for users) ethos, or appeal to credibility (privacy and security, corporate image and branding).
Features–benefits mix
The features–benefits mix is a technique of persuasion that incorporates a mixture of a product or service’s features and benefits into the message to show the audience the real benefits. The message must stress the benefits in order to focus on the receiver’s need and enable the receiver to see the relevance of the features and benefits to them. The message has two essential components:
features of a product or service, and a clear and concise illustration of how to apply these features linkage of the features with the benefits to enable the receiver to understand ‘what’s in it for me’
Appeals to emotion
Appeals to emotion are ideas targeted towards the emotions, needs or values that the reader or listener is likely to care about. Fair appeals to emotion generate emotions based on facts and related to the issue. In contrast, unfair appeals to emotion generate emotions based on unsubstantiated claims and aroused by biased words rather than solid evidence or by fallacies such as red herrings or by personal attacks unrelated to the issue. Appeals to emotion balanced with logic persuade fairly and ethically; however, appeals to emotion are often misused either intentionally or unintentionally. When used improperly, emotional appeals offer a simple unthinking reaction rather than a reasoned argument and manipulate through prejudice, fear, embarrassment or other feelings rather than convince credibly. Example
• Define The Concept Of Emotional Intelligence. Discuss The Role Emotional Intelligence Plays In Building Relationships And Improving Performance At Work.
Define: the abilities to recognise and regulate emotions in ourselves and others. Discuss: Emotionally intelligent people are responsive to others and able to use their own personal and social competence to express their expectations and values. Researchers have concluded that success is related to more than general intelligence (IQ). Successful people are emotionally intelligent. They have the personal and social competence to develop positive personal, social and work relationships, and to interact easily. Emotional intelligence influences organisational effectiveness in a number of areas: employee recruitment and retention, development of talent, teamwork, employee commitment, morale and health, innovation, productivity, efficiency, sales, revenue, quality of service, customer loyalty, client or student outcomes.
• Briefly Explain The Difference Between Macro-culture And Micro-culture Including Examples For Each
The macro-culture comprises all the arts, beliefs and institutions (legal, governmental, business, educational and social) that characterise an ethnic group, race or nation, while a narrower micro-culture exists within the macro-culture. The micro-culture includes the characteristic attitudes and behavior operating within a group, an organisation or a nation.
Macroculture usually consists of the culture which influences the majority of the people. In United States, macroculture reflects to the traditions of Western Europe.
An example of a micro-culture could be the aboriginal community within the larger Australian community.
• Describe The Characteristics Of Hall’s Context Model Of Culture:
Hall’s context model demonstrates that communication and culture are not only about words. Not just text, but context. It explains how context can be measured and that there are two extremes – low and high
High context:
A culture in which the context of communicated messages is as important as the communicated message Low context:
A culture in which the context of communicated messages is not as important as the communicated message itself
• Define The Terms ‘enculturation’ And Acculturation’ And Explain How They Differ. Provide Examples For Each Of The Terms Enculturation Is The Socialisation Process That We Go Through As We Learn About And Adapt To Our Society Examples:
unconscious (as we absorb and imitate the daily habits, speech patterns and roles of our parents from infancy) or deliberate (as we are taught specific manners for greeting people, religious rites and rituals, and reading the Bible, Koran, Torah or other literature). Acculturation is the process of cultural adjustment and adaptation people experience as they move from one culture to another.
Example: Adopting a culture’s values, symbols and behavior.
Moving to another country and adapting to their customs whilst maintaining your traditions from back home. Differ: Enculturation and Acculturation both involve adapting to society however acculturation is not an unconscious or deliberate process and mainly occurs when introduced to a new culture or environment.
• What Is Cultural Diversity? Why Is It Important For People To Study Diversity As They Prepare To Enter Their Career?
Cultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. It is important that people study diversity as they prepare to enter their career because people can then accommodate differences in the background, perspectives and family responsibilities of other employees, and gather knowledge from the diversity of perspectives to generate new ideas and ways of doing things. It is also important, as they will already have acknowledged that the workplace is diverse and also respect other colleagues of their customs and cultural beliefs. This in turn prevents any form of discrimination, and judgement.
• What Types Of Marketing Campaigns Have You Run In The Past?
Be specific when answering questions about your accomplishments with other companies. By simply stating, “I ran several online marketing campaigns” does not adequately show what you can do for the company.
A more appropriate answer would be: “I started a social media campaign that used targeted advertising systems to market the company’s services to youth in North America.” In order to elaborate - this will further project your knowledge of different campaigns - use numbers that support the project such as, “Within three financial quarters, sales increased by 427% and brand recognition vastly improved by 10% within the target demographic.”
Provide an example of a marketing campaign (either your own or someone else's) that you consider to have been very successful.
As mentioned above, marketing demands a lot in terms of creativity. When answering questions such as this, it is important to make sure you include as much creative thinking in your response as there was in the actual project. When discussing a campaign that you felt was successful, make sure to include why you feel it was a success, what contributed to making it a success and point out key tactics that you can identify with, which made the campaign successful.
• How Effectively Do You Think You Can Work Within Budgetary Constraints?
In times of economic strain, this question is most relevant for a marketing professional. As marketing is one of the most important functions within a company, when finances are tight a marketing budget, which may once have been limitless can be squeezed down to close to nothing. This is yet another area which will require a creative answer that also highlights your planning and ambition in terms of working under pressure.
Also, the best way to answer questions about the future is to focus on accomplishments of the past. In other words, when asked about how you would deal with possible future scenarios, refer to your past accomplishments. Your answers should focus on successful campaigns with statement such as, “While I was with my previous company I initiated both low-cost lead generation strategies and several viral marketing campaigns using an almost inexistent budget to boost profits by 200%.”
This question may be followed by an enquiry on how you went about launching these campaigns. This is an excellent opportunity to elaborate on additional skills and impress the interviewer with your knowledge of the industry.
• Provide An Example Of A Marketing Campaign That Did Not Work Out As You Had Planned And How You Handled The Situation.
An interviewer will ask his question in order to assess how you handle a failed plan, as this is quite inevitable. It is important that you are able to recognise the key reasons why a strategy went wrong and what you learnt from the experience.
Campaigns may fail for many different reasons, including: poor research and groundwork, poor planning and follow-through of objectives and goals or ineffective communication. Be open about why the campaign failed, take accountability and focus on what you learnt.
• What Factors Do You Consider Most Important When Attempting To Influence Consumer Behavior?
When answering this question make sure to show how cultural, social, personal and psychological factors all impact consumer behavior. Provide an example of a marketing campaign or project you developed and how you used these four key factors to develop and optimize your project.
• What Are The Biggest Challenges A Marketing Manager Faces Today?
Coming up with new and effective ways to market a product in such a tight economy is a tough challenge and these days customers have more power than ever. It is getting more difficult for marketing initiatives to effectively meet these new customer demands. Keep these and other factors in mind when tackling this question, relate your personal experience of the challenges you have encountered and discuss the creative ways in which you handled them.
• Explain Its Core Concepts:
Needs , wants and demands are the core concepts of marketing. These are basically inter related to each other which means needs which could be individualistic, social or physical arise due to a state of deprivation and have to be fulfilled for a basic human survival. Some human needs shaped by cultural and individual experiences and lifestyles take the form of wants. Ultimately demands are those sets of wants which are backed by the power to buy and could be related to many needs & wants. Other related concepts of marketing may include the Marketplace with exchange and the actual transaction as its base.
• What Is Marketing Communication?
Marketing communication can be defined as the efforts made by the seller to convey his message to his buyers and to accept it in retrievable form. The main point of communication process is persuasion. It is totally goal oriented. It is not an haphazard activity. Each of its tool consists of specific complexities and potentialities that justify managerial specialization.
• What Are The Various Types Of Marketing Research?
Various types of marketing research are:
o Field research: It is related to the research for a specific purpose.
o Desk research: Usually it is conducted for one purpose initially but gradually it is used to support another goal.
o EXploratory research: It investigates an assumption..
o Predictive research: This type of research is done to predict any future occurrence.
o Conclusive research: This type of research is done to derive a conclusion of a research process.
• What Is Interruption Marketing?
Interruption marketing can be defined as promoting a product by the means of advertising, public relation and sales. It is not suitable every time and depends upon company to company. It is very much sales directed, so if a company has limited funds to invest for advertising and wants quick results then interruption marketing is best. But at times it is not considered a fruitful way of marketing.
• What Is The Difference Between Interruption Marketing And Permission Marketing?
There is a vast difference between permission marketing and interruption marketing. Permission marketing is getting found by the customers by itself by the means of SEO, social media and content. It basically focuses on maintaining long term relationship with the customers which is always helpful in long run whereas Interruption marketing focuses on getting quick sales without any thought of long term relationship with customers. It just targets on promoting the product by the means of advertising, promotion etc. to get quick results.
• What Are The Two Major Segmentation Strategies Followed By The Marketing Organizations?
The two strategies followed are:
o Concentration strategy: This kind of segmentation strategy deals in a particular segment of market and therefore they set their prices, etc accordingly. For eg Mercedes benz has chosen to concentrate on the luxury segment of the the car market.
o Multi segment strategy: This kind of segmentation strategy focuses on more then one different market segments. They make separate marketing programs for separate segments.
• What Are Various Kind Of Influences Which Affects Consumer Behavior?
There are various influences, few of them are:
a. Situational Influences: Consist of Market offerings, Demographics and Complexity.
b. External Influences: Consist of Cultural, Social class Reference groups.
c. Internal factors and processes -
i. Psychological Characteristics - Motivation, Learning/socialization, Personality, Attitudes, Lifestyle
ii. Decision Making - Recognize needs, Search for information, Evaluate alternatives, Make purchase, Post purchase.
• What Is Test Marketing?
Test marketing is done in order to test the various variability’s including the elements of the product in a marketing plan. It projects the actual launching of the whole marketing program but on a limited basis. In short it can be said that it is the last step before the product is released.
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