Kantar Brand Associate Flashcards
Tell me about yourself
Recent grad - U of WA, business major, marketing and information systems
Involved on-campus in a few different roles:
I was in my school’s Undergrad women in business
And the American Marketing Association
I’ve also done a few internships
One at an eyewear company (Marchon)
One last summer at Revlon (the makeup brand)
Both of which got me interested in the world of brand marketing (and brand performance)
Since I’ve graduated, I’ve been searching for full-time roles in marketing
Which is what led me to this job
Why do you want this job?
It looked like this role involves a lot of variety: being a consulting company, working with a number of clients/accounts and projects, but it also looked like this role involves a lot of diverse tasks
Mentioned in job description
analyzing at a lot of different aspects of consumer behavior and different markets, which I thought sounded really interesting
I know kantar is known for its innovative approach to market research, I’m really looking to further develop research and data skills as I’m starting my career
Hands-on learning environment really appealed to me
Why Kantar?
I know Kantar is a leader in market research and the company has this global reach, so I was drawn to that aspect
I was also looking into the company culture
Emphasis on inclusivity (ERGs)
Focus on employee learning and growth, which I really value as well
Really good working environment
Why should we hire you (over others?)
From my point of view, this role mainly involves a lot of analyzing data to pull strategic insights
I have experience doing that via past internships, where I looked at various forms of market data to measure the performance of retail products and brands.
These experiences, plus various similar academic projects have taught me to be adaptable when it comes to navigating new database and research tools
Additionally, my on-campus leadership experiences (with women in business club and being part of a student consulting group) have taught me a lot of soft skills like project management, communication, and organization, which I know would also be useful to this position.
Overall, I know that I could bring these skills to Kantar and build upon them as well.
How would you contribute/make an impact?
Being curious, thorough and learning as much as I can about the project and the environment
Putting in continuous effort to improve my skills and knowledge, especially when learning new research methods or tools
Collaborate effectively with team members and make an effort to contribute to the company culture (joining ERGs, contributing to other employee initiatives, etc.)
Strengths
Collaboration
I really enjoy getting to work in a team and being able to create a strong group environment
I try to encourage everyone to share their perspectives and bounce ideas off each other
In a group project scenario, I usually took on the role of managing communication and meeting times/logistics to help make sure everyone is on the same page
(example: did a case competition recently for a class I was taking, tried to facilitate the sharing of ideas, and proposing a way that we can leverage each person’s strengths as a group to complete a project: research, slide design, financials, etc.)
Curiosity
I enjoy learning about things I don’t know
Being curious and asking questions helps me fully understand the context and the business environment in the tasks that I work on, which has been really useful/helped for projects and during internship experiences
Pushed me to seek out new experiences and get out of my comfort zone
Weaknesses
Getting caught up in details, can overthink to the point where it isn’t helpful anymore
Sometimes I can spend too long analyzing over a word choice in a paper or presentation
To try to fix that, when i’m working on something I try to check in and ask myself whether that precision is actually helpful or not,
So it doesn’t become inefficient or unproductive
MAYBE, if needed: Sometimes struggle with ambiguity
I definitely like clear guidelines going into something, but there’s always an unavoidable amount of uncertainty
In an ambiguous project or task, try to reframe it as an opportunity for creativity or thinking outside the box instead of being worried about the unknown
Walk me through your resume
I just graduated - University of Washington, was in the business school
Focused on marketing and information systems
Study abroad for a few weeks in London last summer visiting various companies, which was really cool
As far as work experiences
I was an intern last summer at Revlon on their hair color and beauty tools team
Main project with that was doing research for a campaign for the following year
I also worked at an eyewear company the summer before that as a brand management intern
Main job was to analyze the performance of the brands in the portfolio, and look into competitive/trend research
Was involved in some on-campus organizations
Was the director of administration for my school’s women in business group
Mainly handled our email newsletter, tracked membership, and managed the club’s email inbox and calendar
Was also part of my school’s American Marketing Association, they had a student consulting group
We worked with small businesses in the Seattle area
I was a consultant for a bit, then a project manager
That’s an overview
Survey and research experience
Revlon: used Nielsen to look at sales for lip and eye products (focus for campaign)
(Asked others to pull because I didn’t have access): cross-sales for lip and eye products, data on purchase occasions, comparing brand vs. category sales
Marchon: buyer demographics from an internal database, observational research on trends by looking at bestsellers from other eyewear companies’ sites and visually identifying any patterns
Classes:
Advertising, brand mgmt, etc.: used sites like Mintel, Statista, Passport to back up presentations
Surveys: simple for some class projects, polling people in the student community
MKTG 450? (consumer behavior): survey when working with a local business to see what people thought on potential improvements to the exterior appearance of the restaurant
Suggest their own, asked them to evaluate potential ideas we had (like a mural)
Which is most important (“lighting, signage, color”)
AMA Agency:
Mona Foundation: survey on how Gen Z engages with philanthropy (how they hear about it, willingness to donate, etc.)
Why market research?
I’m interested in market research because I wanted to get to know the “why” behind consumer behavior and business decision-making
as a marketing major, I think fundamentally marketing is about people - which is the aspect that I was most interested in
market research is at the core of that with understanding human behavior
market research is an area that’s really multifaceted: explore a lot of different tasks and experiences and witness a lot of innovation/new developments in industries
Overall a really dynamic field
