'Jellies & Jaffas': Applying PR Smith's SOSTAC Marketing Model to an Online Confectionery Start-Up

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.