At the beginning of the third class, this team had done more than 30 interviews as well as a general segmentation study.

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But to be successful at the McKinsey interview process, candidates must do more than simply answer questions and talk about things like potential customer segmentation and indirect competitors.

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"The more of a commodity PCs become, the more reliance manufacturers will place on brand-name awareness, pricing and market segmentation, " says Stephen.

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That is something more worthy of those retailers that have excellent data about their customers and practice stellar segmentation and targeting strategies, such as the Gap.

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