The interview was conducted with the owner of XYZ Company, which is engaged in the manufacturing and sale of beauty products. This is a summary of the interview, which seeks to answer the “who”, “why”, “how”, “what”, “when”, and “where” questions during the interview.
The interviewee was asked to indicate who the company’s most important clients are. In his response, he said that the company targets young women in the corporate world, who have the financial capacity and means to buy its premium-priced products.
When the interviewee was asked to elaborate on why the company targets this specific market, he said that this market is less saturated and that clients found in this segment are most profitable for the company to service.
Additionally, he said that the target market is attractive in terms of meeting the company’s core growth rate and brand loyalty and that it fits the company’s objectives, resources and capabilities, hence enabling the firm to provide superior value to customers in this segment.
The interviewee was then asked to state how the company’s undertakes its marketing campaigns to sustain growth and competitiveness. In his response, the interviewee said that the company employs different marketing strategies, including call to action (CTA) marketing, free sample marketing, and direct marketing.
While CTA marketing uses the Internet to prompt individuals to access information contained in the form of a banner, text or graphic, free sample marketing consists of giving away a free sample of the product for purposes of influencing the customer to make a purchase, and direct marketing uses mail, email, texts and a multiplicity of promotional materials to communicate directly with the customer.
Moving on, the interview was asked to mention what challenges the company is facing as it attempts to solidify the gains so far made.
In responding to this question, the interviewee said that some of the challenges include entry of new competitors into the market, the global economic environment, threat of substitute products, marketing and customer loyalty, uncertainty, and regulation barriers in several states across the United States.
The interview was then asked to explain when the company will be ready to position itself internationally.
In his response, the respondent noted that the prevailing uncertainty in the global economic environment is acting as a major barrier to internalization efforts, though the company is considering partnering with other firms in selected countries to market its products at an international level.
He noted that plans are underway to create collaborative ventures with other companies, with the view to benefiting from economies of scale and attract new customers for competitiveness and growth.
The tentative date for such collaboration to be operationalized was given as April 2015, though the interviewee was positive that this could happen much earlier than expected if the global economic environment improves.
Lastly, the interviewee was asked to explain where the company intends to target in its internalization efforts and the reasons behind the selection. In his response, the interviewee noted that the company first intends to target countries in Europe and Asia, before expanding to Latin America and Africa.
According to the respondent, the company sells its products at a premium price, hence the need to first target high-value countries in Europe and Asia.
Additionally, the legal requirements and regulations in many of the countries in Europe and Asia are conducive for business, not mentioning that most of firms the company intends to partner with are based in these continents.