HUL Interview Transcript First Interview: Duration 35-45 mins. No of Interviewers: 1 Interviewer: Hi Sharan! How are you? Nervous?

? Me: A bit Interviewer: Relax. This will be just like a conversation. So tell me about yourself Me: Standard answer about my background, CV etc. Mentioned my role as editor of several school, college magazines etc. I was asked to elaborate on my role there etc. Interviewer: Sounds interesting. Lets talk about that. Have you heard of Femina? Me: Yes Interviewer: So tell me about its market? Me: Talked about its content (women related issues, fashion, cooking, etc.) and that its positioning was the urban Indian woman (both professional and stay-at-home), I was asked why etc. Interviewer: How would you increase its market share? Me: Talked about strengthening its positioningIncreasing distribution and visibility by advertising etc. Including more current issues with a special focus on women related current issues, include advice, perhaps localize some content etc(This was a long discussion, with many ideas being thrown about) Interview: Alright so segment the womens magazine market? Me: Well there is the young teenage girls, fashion conscious women. For older women there could be two segments. Career women with an interest in current issues and advice etc. and home-makers who prefer house-keeping features. Interviewer: What do you think should be the guiding principle when you segment such a market? Me: I think it should evolve from readers interests. Those interests are of course dependent on their lifestyle etc. But I think overall it should be a psychographic segmentation Interviewer: Is that what youve done? Me: I think I have in a way Interviewer: Look again Me: (positively confused) I did bring the age element in, so perhaps it started as a demographic segmentation Interviewer: Yes (and then we discussed this for a bit coz I thought Id tried to bring the psychographic element) Interviewer: So if you were a publishing house like DNA and you had to launch a womens magazine, what would be your strategy? Me: Id like to use a sample urban area like say Delhi and extrapolate that to other areas. Ill also assume that the circulation will be in an urban setup only. Interviewer: Thats fine Me: I want maximum circulation, so I need to identify which segment is the largest and what growth potential it has in the future. (some discussion about Indias population being young and growing..I chose to broadly target english speaking women in the 20-50 age group sort of Feminas segment)

Interviewer: Lets start with determining the size of this market. How would u do it? Me: Lets assume Delhi has a population of 10 million, of which 50% will be women. So 5 million. And lets assume 80% can read English at some level. So 4 million..Now we need to eliminate the 0-20 age group(Discussion abut how this could be done..either assume even distribution for each decade and just remove 0-20 grp. Interviewer not too happy since cities have a young population bias. Look at population growth since say 1990- roughly 1%. Find out what population was at 1990 and subtract the number of individuals added since then etc. Very happy with this approach) Interviewer: Ok good. Lets discuss your favourite brand Me: Dove Interview: No not that oneI can imagine why. Lets talk about your most hated brand instead. Me: Ok. I hope youll excuse me but I really do not like the Fair and Lovely brandOf course I think it emerged from a great consumer insight that the Indian concept of beauty is a fair complexion. This is not really HULs fault. Its only reflective of politically problematic values prevalent in societies sometimes..(A hundred other disclaimers) Interviewer: (looking very grim-faced) So, if you were the brand manager of Fair and Lovely, what would you do? Me: From the marketing perspective I believe Fair and Lovely has got it right. A bang-on insight with the right kind of positioning. I would undertake activities that help empower women, like fund education, provide career opportunities etc. Mostly promote empowerment and positive self image for women in lower and middle income segments. Go beyond finding a groom and looking good. I believe the Fair and Lovely foundation already does this. I would publicise that effort. I believe that in the future advertising with somewhat problematic messages would come under the scanner of social responsibility watchdogs and its better to undertake efforts preemptively to deal with that situation. Interviewer: Questions for me? Me: Yes about the BLT stint(Interviewer calls a senior and an HR person and we discuss the BLT program. Interview over and was asked to come back for the 2nd round) 2nd Interview: 65-75 minutes No. of Interviewers: 2 Disclaimer: This interview went by in a blur. It was extensive and I dont remember all of itIt was more like a discussion with 2 tough negotiators than an interview. Ill recp the interesting parts.. Interviewer 2: Hi. Tell me about yourself. Why marketing? Me: (standard answers) Interviewer 1: Do you think women have it very easy in job interviews? Standards are lower etc. Me: Ive heard and seen so in some organizations. But broadly in my experience, this hasnt happened. (was trying to evade the answer. Sowas pushed to answer whether it WAS so and not whether it SHOULDNT be so..) My interviews for the previous job

were as technical as my male peers. My CAT percentile is high (no bias there) and the interview was fairly rigourous. There are only 19 women in a batch of 280blah blah. So Id conclude standards have been the same. Interviewer 1: Your CV does not reflect any marketing interest. You should be grateful we short-listed you. Me: I am and I thank you for it. I hope my form did better justice than my CV to my interest. (Was asked to convince them on why marketing againsome nonsense about the same magazine experience and drawing marketing parallels. Talked about courses and projects.) Interviewer 2: Tell us about the Brand Management course (SBM) Me: (Explained broadly what the course was about. Was asked to talk on my project on Nestles brand portfolio. Asked to pick a brand. Chose Maggi. We discussed how the brand evolved independently and its relationship with the parent brand Nestle has never been explicitTalked about how such an association would dilute the brand etc. Discussed ad campaigns and what should Maggi do, as they were changing their positioning towards health food. hey suggested that perhaps it was time for Nestle to endorse Maggi. Talked briefly about another project on Cadbury Dairy Milks ad campaigns) Interviewer 1: Ok. Your favorite brand? Me: Dove Interviewer 2: (Groans) Lets not go there. Tell me about some other course. Me: Talked about Consumer Based business strategies (CBBS) and what it covered. Talked about a project on Sonys portable audio market and how it could try and reclaim its leadership position. It needed to rationalize its product portfolio. Lots of useless products. Still following what everyone did. Nothing new and revolutionary like the Walkman was. They asked me what Sonys USP was. I said it was a technology leader and innovation. They laughed and said Sony had never invented anything. Sony became a household name with Walkman and it was not original. Its USP was portable music and convenience. Asked to talk about rivals. Naturally Apple and I-pod came up. Asked what Apples USP was. Innovation. They laughed again and said the I-pod was only like a USP. I fumbled for quite a while and then blurted out Its cool! Right answer. They told me a bit about Apples campaigns etc._ Interviewer 1: Pick a product market. Any that youre comfortable with. Cars, elecronics anything. Me: Shampoos. (Interviewer 2 grins evilly and asks me if Im sure coz he was heading the shampoos division) I said I was sure and ws asked to name all of HULs shampoo brands. Did so. Was asked to list rivals bands as wellSoon wed mde a list of some 15 brands Interviewer 2: Now if you had to start from scratch and had unlimited money, which brands would you buy? Me: Id like to balance my portfolio and chose those that had large market share in different segments. Picked up Clinic for the mass-market. Sunsilk for womens market. Then had to choose between anti-dandruff/herbal niche and the luxury products niche. Chose anti-dandruff and picked Head & Shoulders. Interviewer 1: Have you heard of Brand Valuation? An agency called Interbrand does only that job. People pay it to put a number to a brand value. It has 2 axis, Can

you tell me what the parameters are? Alright if u were Interbrand, how would you value a brand? Me: Id look at current market share. Present value of advertising and promotional spend since its inception as it helps in building recall and market share. Next Id look at its effectiveness and would choose Brand awareness Interviewer 1: I think thats enough. It has two parameters Respect and Recall (cant remember, ironically).Your answer in a way considers these. So perhaps the most premium brands would be the most valued. Would you like to change your answer? Me: Oh! If I understand correctly, I should buy a Dove rather than a Clinic Interviewer 2: PossiblyQuestions? Me: Asked some about BLT and how it was personally to work at HULAfter the interview we had a brief discussion on the difference between a Customer and a Consumer.