I'm a startup marketer, so I'll attempt this one: You have been contacted by a mobile chat app startup to help them develop a plan to market their chat app in a country where another chat app is dominating the market. What do you suggest they do?

First, we need to determine the positioning statement or Unique Selling Point of the new product versus the market leader. If there is no major difference, it's likely to be very difficult to get users to switch, so it's likely that they will have to spend tons of money in ads. The difference can be very subtle (eg google had tons of search engine competitors when they launched - but they just served better and more accurate results. Also, their user interface was super clean and simple - very different from portals like Yahoo).

So first I would advise to find that message or story of why you are different, why people should use you. Then, if budget is an issue, go for PR. Lots of PR. It's cost effective and relatively easy to accomplish, and is the cheapest way to the first 10,000 users. Another popular tactic is influencer marketing - find the nodes, the super connectors, and pay or charm them onto the platform (eg dating apps like Tinder got the sorority girls on first, before approaching the fraternity guys).

Once you have a core set of users, look for a scalable marketing channel. It can be paid ads, it can be content marketing, it can be social sharing tools, but it has to be something that can scale quickly, rather than the marketing team going around to talk to influencers or put stickers and signs around the place. Test with small experiments and small amounts for quick data on the results, and go all in on the one channel that has the most effective results.

.... so would you hire me based on this? =)