Cowley, M. (2016). 'Jellies & Jaffas': Applying PR Smith’s SOSTAC Model to an Online

Confectionary Start-Up. Innovation & Management Science eJournal, September 2016.

'Jellies & Jaffas': Applying PR Smith’s SOSTAC Model to an Online

Confectionary Start-Up

Submitted by Michelle B. Cowley

Business Studies Certificate in Digital Marketing & New Media Management DK_BCDIM_7

Introduction to the SOSTAC Model of Marketing

This report sets about explicating how the SOSTAC Model (Smith, 2011) makes possible a

systematic design and implementation of a digital marketing plan. SOSTAC is an acronym

for the six core components to be considered when generating a marketing plan: situation (S),

objectives (O), strategy (S), tactics (T), action (A) and control (C). Each component

represents a stage in the cycle of planning, and each stage is of equal importance to

successful marketing planning, implementation, and review (Chaffey & Smith, 2013). Now

widely accepted as the forerunner system for implementing marketing plans and

communications strategies, SOSTAC is an extension of the traditional SWOT analysis, that

is, a situational analysis of the strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats

(T) facing a business at the outset, when introducing a new product line, or when engaging in

an organizational change process.

Thus, the premises of this report are two-fold. First the report sets about detailing each

stage of the SOSTAC model in sequence as it can be applied to start-up online business.

Second, the report explicates each stage as a component of a digital marketing plan critiquing

the necessary and sufficient operations that may or may not be applied to a start-up online

business. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to the suitability of the model’s application to a

small to medium sized online business.

(S) SITUATION - ‘‘Jellies & Jaffas’’: A Sweet and Baking Start-Up Online Business

Following the advent of the internet, a plethora of the wonderful world of sugar-craft online

businesses have sprung up in tandem with the exponential explosion of online digital means

to generate income. ‘Planet Candy’ and ‘Aunty Nellies’ are those now well known to name

but a few.

Fig.1. A Google image search sample of retro-style sweets ‘Macaroons & Jellies in Jars’.

The phenomenon of the Great British Bake-Off, for example, has shown us that sweet treats

and everything sugar is as popular as ever. Surely no product could more aptly justify the

philosophy that marketing is about satisfying needs and delighting the consumer to create

profit, than sweets and cakes (Kotler, 2013). Just one mention of Jaffa Cakes by the Great

British Bake-Off '2016 and stores are overrun with demand (Blake & Gurka, 2016).

So with the digital market place being crowded with similar business concepts, and the

demand for such goods seemingly unexhausted, a new company will need to not only have a

cleverly conceived unique selling point (USP), but to ensure that this USP is well positioned

within the market ensuring that margin return on investment (ROI) is competitive.

For the purposes of this report a hybrid business concept, comprising both high-end

product lines in macaroons and retro-sweets, was chosen. The business name ‘‘Jellies &

Jaffas’’ communicates that the product line consists of both sweets and cakes, and the

specification of jellies and jaffa sized cakes indicates the products’ retro-quaint aspects with

bite-size and easily distributable features and benefits. The hybrid concept also identifies the

gap in the market that exists for a convenient one-stop shop for both dessert typologies,

especially for example, for events such as weddings, more usually ordered from separate

companies or suppliers. An integrated online ordering system could be therefore

simultaneously cost aware, in terms of providing a virtual store-front, and centralized for

distribution. Let us now take a closer look at how the SOSTAC model can be used to draw up

a digital marketing plan to implement this ‘‘Jellies & Jaffas’’ concept.

(O) OBJECTIVES: ROI and Brand-Marketing

The main objective of the business is to satisfy market

demand, using the purchasing exchange process with

consumers, to generate profit and market share. Other

objectives include building brand awareness and reputation for

service and products, while discovering where the most

valuable consumers are. Capitalizing on the exponential reach,

richness, and affiliation that an online business affords, can be

used to divide the market into useful market segments

geographically, and demographically to effectively target

channel and regional communication efforts leading to

increased ROI.

For “Jellies & Jaffas” this translates to creating an enticing

logo, packaging and labeling set, a high quality product range,

and excellent B2B supplier relationships. Add to this a brand-

marketing and communications regime consisting of a

website, e-marketing campaign plan, social-media platform

brand-awareness generation, and a marketing budget, and the

germs of the necessity of tailoring an explicit digital marketing

plan becomes evident.

The SOSTAC Model

(Copyright Smith, 2011).

Moreover, the communications strategy, the efficiency of tactics to implement it, and the

extent of brand-marketing success will need to be evaluated according to measurable and

regular key performance reporting (i.e., KPIs). Let us turn first to making our digital

marketing strategy more explicit.

(S) STRATEGY: A Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy

For the strategy to be in alignment with what competitors such as ‘Aunty Nellies’ and ‘Candy

Planet’ employ, the digital marketing plan must be either more

comprehensive, more efficient, or more focused. To match a digital

marketing strategy to the hybrid ‘‘Jellies & Jaffas’’ concept it is

therefore important to define the target market and to segment that

market sensibly in an undiffused way. The plan needs to focus the

marketing message consistently across the digital marketing

channel with a defined and patented logo, business registration, and

phrase, and to build all marketing material consistently across all

channels regardless of media. An identifiable ‘‘Jellies & Jaffas’’

marketing material template is to be constructed through an

advertising agency or graphic designer consultant of choice. (e.g.,

CMS Marketing). Drawing on geographic, demographic, and psychographic retail

knowledge catalogues of behavioural consumer research (e.g., ESOMAR, 2016), the cluster

profiles for purchasers of retro-sweets and old fashioned baked dessert foods needs to be

drawn up. Consumer profiles matching events, such as garden parties, buffets, weddings etc.,

are to be inferred to develop the marketing material and digital photography portfolio for

digital channel use. Next, a comprehensive chart of digital marketing strategy components

and the matching business process model is to be put into place to organize the marketing

campaign. See Figure 2 below for an example (Vedprakash, 2016).

Fig. 2. : A comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy (Vedprakash, 2016)

(T) TACTICS: Social Media Marketing Tactics & Marketing Operations

Once each component of the digital marketing plan is explicated, the tactics themselves

corresponding to the plan and

marketing material needs to be

put into an operational calendar.

A spider-gram or brain-

storming exercise such as

drawing out operational tactics

for each social media platform

may be appropriate at this stage

as Figure 3 shows (e.g.,

Kentico, 2016).

Fig. 3.: Tactical Operations for Social Media

For example, a design template for a “Jellies & Jaffas” website might look like a standard

template for online sweet selling, with the added product line for macaroons and other bite-

size bakes.

Registered domain names matching “Jaffa & Jellies.Com”, and a well-budgeted Google

Ads program including well designed calls to action, landing pages, and thank you pages to

gather vital consumer intelligence and e-contact details for an e-Marketing campaign comes

next (HubSpot Academy, 2016).

A sweet-making, bite-size bake baking webinar or trade-show series on YouTube, and a

regular and active Pinterest blog timed to capitalize on the fashionable sweeties and min-

bakes of the moment will increase brand-awareness, consumer

engagement, lead and pipe-line consumer possibility, and in turn

enable conversion measurement.

Moreover, SEO and engagement data through Google

Analytics and YouTube view, comments, and reviews will enable

regular weekly, monthly, and quarterly insights for routine and

novel conjectures relevant to company direction, immediate

consumer needs, and demand patterns. Twitter in conjunction

with Twitter Analytics, and Facebook in conjunction with

Facebook Insights will give quick summary statistical insights

into how each social media platform is performing at a glance

guiding daily decision making.

Pinterest ‘Jellies & Jaffas’

(A) ACTION & (C) CONTROL: Scheduling, Dashboards, & Performance Reporting

What actions are to be taking, that is, what actions are to be taken daily and how will the

labour and time resources be devoted to each task? First, we need a scheduler of activity for

our social media platforms. Who

will source the materials, who will

be engaged in prospective

videography for YouTube and

writing prospective press releases

for Facebook, Twitter, Google+,

Pinterest etc., and moreover what

resources and time-lines will be

required to build the material. For

example, a studio kitchen space,

equipment, and ingredients will

need to be sourced, invoiced, and

monitored.

Fig. 4.: Social Media Scheduler

The time-lines will need to co-reflect media relevance and cross-posting from up to the

minute journalistic or renowned blogger sites, and to be platform and device appropriate. A

program of E-Marketing will need to be drawn up with data protection procedures and

policies in place, and a quarterly schedule for each platform, and each product/seasonal retail

time-line is to be constructed. The time-line must also have some flexibility to wax and wane

with the demands of the market (See Figure 4 ‘Find & Convert.Com).

Aside from labour, space, and material resources there is the ongoing challenge of

performance measurement (IBM SPSS, 2016), and whether engagement leads to pipeline

conversion (HubSpot Academy, 2016).

One way to consistently monitor and produce automatic statistical summary reporting is to

use a package such as Salesforce or Tableau (e.g., Tableau, 2013). A dashboard, such as the

one here in Figure 5 can be specified to the business purposes and organized accordingly.

Monitoring in this way will quickly demonstrate the most profitable way to market to

engender brand-awareness through engagement data, or sales volume through conversion

mapping data from engagement to sale per consumer per digital marketing medium pipeline.

Where there are shortcomings, the

SOSTAC model will allow a tracing

through from action and control endpoint

back right back to restructuring the

objectives at the outset. This cyclical model

therefore builds in renewal, redundancy,

and efficiency. (Copyright –

Salesforce.Com)

Fig. 5.: A Sales and Engagement Dashboard

Conclusion

In sum, this report explored the concept of the SOSTAC Model (Smith, 2011), as it can be

applied to an online business start-up concept. Each component in the cyclical stage was

outlined and explained in terms of applying it to the “Jellies & Jaffas” online bite-size sweet

and baking online company. Although the SOSTAC model is the most widely implemented it

could be too heavy-duty in its application to small and medium businesses online- the KPI

performance component may require costly labour and software resources, in comparison to

other models such as the Inbound-Methodology three-step consumer journey focus

methodology (HubSpot Academy, 2016). That said, should the business be successful with

unanticipated growth in market share or regional expansion, then it will always be useful to

have conducted a SOSTAC analysis at the outset (Chaffey & Smith, 2013).

Bibliography & Social Media Image Credit Appendix

Aunty Nellies Online Sweets. http://www.auntynellies.ie/

Blake, I., & Gurka, E. (2016). The Bake-Off Effect Strikes Again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3760269/The-Bake-effect-strikes-Searches-Jaffa-

Cakes-lemon-drizzle-SOAR.html

Chaffey, D. & Smith, P. R. (2013). Emarketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing your

Digital Marketing. Routledge: London.

ESOMAR: The World Association for Market, Social, and Opinion Research

https://www.esomar.org/

Find and Convert. Com. (2016). Elements of a Digital Marketing Road-Map.

http://www.findandconvert.com/2012/10/4-elements-of-a-digital-marketing-roadmap

HubSpot Academy – Inbound Marketing Certification Program

http://www.hubspot.com/

IBM-SPSS Software Business Analytics. (2015)The New Frontier for Personalized Customer

Experience: IBM Predictive Customer Intelligence. https://www.ibm.com/marketplace/

Kentico Marketing Solutions (2016). Eight Online Marketing Tools Every Marketer Should

Know. http://www.kentico.com/

Kotler, P. T. (2013). The Principles of Marketing. UK: Pearson Education.

LinkedIn Business Solutions – White Paper Series https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-solutions

Planet Candy. https://www.planetcandy.ie/

Smith, P. R. (2011). The SOSTAC(r) Guide To Writing The Perfect Marketing Plan,

www.PRSmith.org

Sweet Shop Website Templates: https://www.template.net/web-templates/website-

templates/sweet-shop-template/

Tableau Software Solutions (2013). Fostering a Data-Driven Culture: A Report for the

Economist Intelligence Unit. The Economist: Economist Intelligence Unit.

Vedprakash, S. (2016). Digital Marketing Plan Templates. https://branded.me/vedprakash-

srivastava