"Who do you think are our two major competitors?"I never received this question, but it is very likely if it is important to know competitors. Make sure during your research, you also investigate the competitors of the company you are interviewing for. You can make your answer if you know more details such as market percentage of each company, or if it is a product company, what products they make. For the long answer, I'll give an example of a person interviewing for a marketing position for McDonalds. This is a good example, because one of the competitors is obvious. It is Burger King. But what is the second competitor. That is the significance of this example. It gives you an opportunity to explain your opinion of the second competitor. But the figures I'm giving for all the answers are fake. You should make sure you research numbers so you can use them in your answers.
Short Answers"The number one competitor to Verizon is Cingular. After they merged with AT&T, they became the largest cell phone provider with a 19% market control. The next competitor is Nextel. Although they only have 10% of the market, they are increasing in strength.""The two competitors of Nokia are Motorola and Samsung. Motorola has a strong presence in the United States where Samsung is more global.""Microsoft is competing with many different companies because Microsoft provides many different software. MSN is growing and AOL is the number one competitor for this business, while the Microsoft OS is challenged by Linux because it's free." Long Answer"The biggest competitor is Burger King. Where ever you see a McDonalds, it's common to see Burger King near by. They specialize in flame broiled burgers and use that as their marketing strategy. The Whopper is their number one selling burger selling approximately 30% more than all their other burgers. The second competitor is Wendy's. Although in some regions other hamburger stores sell more, if you take international sales into consideration, Wendy's clearly is a strong competitor. They advertise opening late and concentrate on their dollar menu luring people in to buy other more expensive items."This example clearly demonstrates knowledge about the industry instead of just McDonalds. Knowing the industry is important because and this question gives you the opportunity to show that off. This example also demonstrates an understanding of the international aspect of selling burgers. Finally, their marketing strategy is included in the answer. When you are interviewing for a position, make sure you know as much detail as you can to show that you are knowledgeable about the whole industry.
