Advice about job interview prep - will this make me look like a massive weirdo?

[AnnaFender]

I've recently been made redundant from a job I loved, which is very sad. But onwards and upwards and all that, I'm now in the market for a new job.

I work in marketing. I have an interview coming up for a well known British supermarket. I would love to go in my local store and see if the manager has a spare 10 mins so I could understand some of the goals/challenges they are facing. For example, what is average basket spend? Are they looking to improve this? What products are popular with customers? Do they find own brand products sell better or stocked external brands? I'm thinking that this would give me lots to talk about at the interview and hopefully I would look proactive and they would be impressed I took the initiative? I'm worried it's a bit 'too much' though and the store manager wouldn't appreciate some random interviewee wasting their time.

I'm really excited about this interview and would love to get the job, so worried I may be overthinking it a bit!

Vote:
YANBU - The interviewer will be well impressed at your initiative and you'll have some great talking points at the interview.

YABU - The store manager will think you're a self important, time wasting weirdo.

I can't vote because The interviewer will be well impressed at your initiative and you'll have some great talking points at the interview and The store manager will think you're a self important, time wasting weirdo are BOTH true.

Agree with posters who have said do your research but maybe not specifically speaking to the store manager. Sounds like you’re extremely keen & know what you’re looking for - the info is there and observable without identifying yourself to store staff.

I interviewed recently and the two front runner candidates were asked about my organisation’s most recent marketing campaign. Neither of them were particularly familiar with it (or my industry) but the one who told me how they would progress & develop it using their limited product knowledge coupled with their strong marketing background is the one who got the role. They’re not a product expert because at this stage they don’t have to be.

I worked for Asda.

As pp says, they wouldnt market differently in one store.

Small format and larger format are the two classifications. Even shelves are designed at head office and then stores implement what they are told and how they are told to do it.

I would look round stores of several different size of stores and note what you think, feedback etc

You might have more joy looking at things like Statista, for instance,www.statista.com/statistics/300605/grocery-retailers-spend-per-visit-united-kingdom-uk-by-retailer/ and/or a quick trawl on YouTube or iPlayer for a bit of background on the retail sector in general.

I don't work in marketing or retail but I was fascinated when I was watching a recent documentary on Sainsburys to find that the second most important "occasion" in the year, in terms of consumer spend, was not, as I'd always thought, Valentine's Day, but Mother's Day. Especially when it came to flowers.

And something else someone said that always stuck with me about marketing was this. Coca Cola, in some ways, has a harder time of it than Pepsi (just an example, used as they are such huge brands at present). All Pepsi has to do is try to become Number One. Coca Cola, on the other hand, has to continue to maintain its Number One spot, and that can be awfully precarious...so knowing your competitors is very important in retail or any other sales-based environment.

I used to live near the biggest Marks & Spencers outside London in the south east/south central, which was right next door to an enormous Sainsburys (I LOVED having that as my corner shop, effectively...). Both have such wide variations between stores and locales that it's a fascinating thing to look at even if you're not applying for a job...I also still remember trying to buy a Per Una top in the colour I'd seen in Bournemouth (a lovely rusty dark orange with contrasting trim) in Exeter; they had the top but only in much duller colours, and when I asked, they said they couldn't order it for me (this is around 15 years ago) as "Every Per Una was different due to regional differences in consumer"....hm. How's that approach going, M&S?!

Good luck with the interview though.

I work in marketing in that industry, and would say go in and have a chat, but more importantly get a Grocer free trial and scope out all your info from there.

Have a good look yourself around a store yourself, notice campaigns running at the moment if they advertise on the TV etc, show good awareness of what they have done /are doing marketing wise. In terms of store staff, chat to them to understand store life and retail in general e.g the change over of promotions on a certain day, store layout, the difference between types of store (e.g super store vs local). For macro information on retail use The Grocer. The interviewer will be impressed with store visits (difficult types if you can), most supermarket head offices encourage their staff to visit stores, and some enforce working in a store e.g over Christmas....

Will it not be a competency based interview in which case you may distract yourself from the main focus and scoring potential of the interview.

Marketing interviews are very rarely competency based! I have been in the industry 20 years and never had one.

Thanks so much to those that recommended The Grocer, I've been reading up lots today and I'm definitely feeling well informed! Such interesting data!

I work in this sector and I would ask the following

How many of our sites you have visited in prep for this visit:.. mention it at the interview if they don't ask? Make sure it's more than just your local one?
I would ask if you had reviewed their website and what are your thoughts on it

Make sure you familiarise yourself with the online ordering process

If you're in Scotland or Wales make sure you're aware of the alcohol bill and minimum pricing legislation.

I'd probably do it the opposite way. Id Express my interest in the interview and offer one of my days up to go in on my own time and learn before your actual first day if they're ok with it

Do it!

Maybe also sign up to leading edge, from IGD haven’t been a member for a few years but they used have some good insight articles.

I’d also look at the annual report and see if you can find any video of execs speaking to trade bodies etc.

Also if they have different formats I’d make sure to visit as many as poss.

I used to work in retail HR and if someone hadn't at least visited a store and made some observations, they wouldn't get the jobs. Bonus points for speaking to staff.

I'm a retail manager and a lot of the detail you're planning to ask about we would not give. We don't know who you are and you don't work for our company so why would we give out confidential information? You certainly wouldn't be able to just sign in as a visitor (as someone suggested) and wander round asking the staff questions. By all means visit a few stores as a customer but don't expect the store team to give out info about the store/company.