Marketing Mix at an Interview

If the person can be considered the product in a marketing mix then there is going to be three other categories that you also have to consider as well.  They are the four P’s of marketing: place, promotion and price.  Each one of these categories has a lot of sub-categories to consider and that describe how the product is going to be presented. 

                Product:  If you are considering yourself as the product then what are you bringing to the table?  What kind of quality are you?  What are your features and options?  These are all examples of what is going to make up you as a product.  If you are looking for a job and going to an interview you are going to want a high quality, lots of features, nice style, and the company hiring you would want returns. 

                Place:  With place there isn’t as many things that you would need to have like in the product category but they are still important.  A good example is how far you live from the job you’re applying for.  This is biggest concern for the company because they may need you to get the job immediately from a reason and if you live far away this could hinder your chances.  As well as what form of transportation do you have to get to the job? 

                Promotion:  What are you going to do to advertise yourself to the company?  What is going to make all you special features and skills jump out to the interviewer and make them want to have you in their company?  These things can include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and PR.  You need to find a way to make yourself better than anyone else. 

                Price:  What are you going to cost the company?  You don’t want to come into the company asking for an extreme amount of money unless you and the company are convinced that you are worth every penny.  You want to be qualified for the job and at a reasonable price for the company to bring you aboard.

                If you take all these categories into effect and do them well and efficient then there shouldn’t be a problem getting the job you are looking for.  There are many other ways to use the four P’s in real life but an interview is probably the most relevant. 

The difference between Marketing, Advertising, and Propaganda

All three of these words are very closely related and yet have entirely different in meanings.  They can all be conveyed as getting information out the general public to promote their side or position on a subject.  The real difference is how they are able to get their message across or what the intent is behind the way they do it.  The easiest way to understand how these words are different is to break each of them down to their definitions and an example of each.

We'll start first with advertising.  The definition reads that advertising is "The 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."  An example of advertising is the ads you see on TV, radio or around town.   (Dictionary.com) Next is marketing, and it states that marketing is "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." (Dictionary.com)  Advertising is more of a part or the marketing strategy.  For instance, the plan that a big company would make the show their stock holders how they are going to make profits and help get new investors.   Advertising is just one little section of it where marketing can include a lot of other pieces.

This brings us to propaganda.  Propaganda is "Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc." (Dictionary.com)  Propaganda is a little bit different but not by much.  When people think of propaganda they think of war time and the governments trying to lie to us to get us to go to war, for example, the Nazi régime in WWII to convince the German people to rise up against the Jews. 

These three words are close and yet very different and when you break each one of them down you start to see how they vary but still see why they can be confused with one another.  Even after the definitions and examples they will still be confusing to some and will still be misconstrued for a while.