Next week I have an interview for a Marketing Analyst position with a major bank.
The interviewer has seen my resume, knows my background (85% administrative), knows I don’t have a degree and has not disqualified me. It would be nice to have an answer to that question you just know will come up: “So, why do you want to be a marketing analyst?”
I’m looking for information on the following:
What does a marketing analyst do?
What tools do they use?
What kind of software applications do they use?
What kind of training will a novice in the field receive?
Thanks!
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
As I understand it, a marketing analyst tracks information about a business’s position in the market (e.g., competitors, customers, etc.) The exact nature of this would differ from business to business. You would probably be working under a senior market analyst and would be helping to create and maintain whatever databases they need. So skills would involve spreadsheets, wordprocessing, internet skills, and maybe some statistics.
There are also marketing research analysts, who are more involved with directly assessing a company’s marketing techniques (e.g., through customer surveys, focus groups, etc.)
cher3’s descriptions are pretty accurate. I supported marketing types in heavy industry for many years, (which is hardly banking, of course), but the examples may give you a flavor of what those folks do.
The market analysts I supported spent lots of time trying to find out why product A was selling like hotcakes while we couldn’t give away product B. We spent lots of time identifying the customers of each product, comparing the non-A and non-B products that the customers were buying. (Was there a tie-in between the hot seller and another product? Was there too much overlap between product B and product C, so that product C (that we weren’t even interested in) was stealing market share from product B? What sort of customers were buying A vs B (end users? Original Equipment Manufacturers? distributors?). What sort of discounts would the buyers of A expect? What was the difference in discounts for the buyers of B? Was there a third party product that promoted the use of A over B? (I.e., was there a widget being sold by another company that was really compatible with product A, while there were no similar products to support product B?)
The marketing research person (that department was not a high corporate priority) spent a lot of time gathering information on the general sales patterns of all products similar to those of our company, using published figures from trade organizations to compare our sales to sales of the competition, looking at various census and other Federal reports to determine the demographics for new opportunities. (E.g., if you build mining equipment and the Feds announce that they are about to open the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to strip mining, what general contractors or small mining companies in the Four Corners region might be interested in your products and what mammoth corporations are the ones most likely to bribe their way into exclusive contracts for the land?) The Feds also publish prognostications of the types of industries that are liable to open in a particular region.
Either line of work can be really exciting or dry as dust, depending on how the company asks for and uses the information.
I would guess that a bank would look for the places locally where development is going to spring up, next, so that they could target that area for mortgage loans. They are going to be interested in how to take the best advantage of any of the frequently changing investment rules that issue from Washington or Ottawa, (or Sacramento or Toronto).
The replies so far are a pretty good description of the overall view of what a market analyst does. The types of tools you might be using depends on the sophistication of company. For example, you might be using data that estimates property values and incomes by zip code to decide the optimal placement of a new ATM. Some banks might look to the analysis to give a simple stack rank report sorted by highest values to lowest and pick out the locations with the highest value. A highly sophisticated bank will want statistical analysis to build a predictive model about areas that are going to become the ideal location in the future.
In the first case, you would probably be able to get by with a tool such Excel. In the later case, you are looking at statistical packages such as SPSS or SAS. In either case, communications with non-technical types (people who went into marketing to avoid the higher level math courses in college) is a critical skill. You have to be able to demonstrate difficult concepts in laymans terms.
What can I say, handy? I want a new job and I’m bored with my area of expertise. I’d love to branch out and I’m fortunate to have a friend who is an assistant vice president at this bank. She is confident that I can do the job because she knows I am intelligent, a hard worker and that I learn new skills quickly.
Hey, I think it’s weird too. As I said, the interviewer knows job history and educational background. Why would they want someone who has no experience in that field? I have no idea. Maybe they want a newbie whom they can mold into the perfect Marketing Analyst. Maybe the experienced Marketing Analysts are all employed… ?
I’ll back you on your choice to examine it, Canthearya. I would guess that if they’ve seen your resume, they know you don’t have marketing education. I learned lots about marketing just by being the coder extracting their information. (After a few years, I’d get a request, then give them stuff they hadn’t asked for, only to have them come back and ask “How did you know we needed that data?”) It is not rocket science or brain surgery. It does require the application of intelligence.
I don’t think handy’s reaction was out of line; I had a similar first thought. (You can deal with him as to his expression of the idea.) On the other hand, outside a few very specialized tasks, marketing does not need experts in support roles.
The two aspects that I would be concerned about in your position:
Are their expectations going to be too high? Are they going to expect you to make expert decisions after a few short months that you may not be qualified to make for a while longer?
Are their expectations going to be too low? Are they simply looking for someone to pore over thousands of pages of reports counting tick marks to bring back to the “real” analyst–and if they are, would you be happy with that kind of work?
I’d say that it is well worth pursuing, but you should be careful that everyone agrees on what you need to know and what you will be expected to do before you take the job.
Depending on the size of the company, the marketing analyst may be required to work mostly alone and accomplish their tasks with little to no help or she may be a part of a team that she can learn from and grow in.
The title is a fairly generic one, and can mean a number things in different companies.
As for the background in Marketing, I am a CS major and they made me a Marketing Analyst (at least in title). Tom is right, it is not rocket science, it is a lot of common sense. Also, if possible take a marketing course, or workshop to help you learn some of the areas that are not as straightforward.
On the other hand, outside a few very specialized tasks, marketing does not need experts in support roles.