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'Jellies & Jaffas' - A Peer Review



In her report, the author Michelle B. Cowley-Cunningham aims to outline the SOSTAC Model, created by PR Smith, and describe how this model can be applied to start-up online businesses. In contrast, she also critiques this plan and details how it should not be applied to start-up online businesses (Cowley-Cunningham, 2016).
In her report, the author uses a retro sweets and cakes start-up online business example to demonstrate the SOSTAC Model as outlined below:
  • S - The author sees an opening in the market for selling sweet treats. However, it is essential that a Unique Selling Point (USP) is decided to set her sweet treats apart from the competition. The author settled on bite sized retro sweets and cakes to sell in a one stop shop for both dessert types (Cowley-Cunningham, 2016).
  • O - As an objective, the author aims to satisfy market demand in order to achieve a Return on Investment (ROI). She decides to focus on brand marketing, packaging and communication strategies. She measures these against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure her goals are being reached.
  • S - Next, the author needed to create a digital marketing strategy. She had to focus on selecting a target market and the segmentation of that market. The end goal being to market her message consistently across all channels.
  • T - After creating a digital marketing strategy, it was necessary to organise all the tactics the author had in mind. She gathered the tactics for her strategy into one spot and decided the best way to proceed. This included items such as: a registered domain name and baking videos/webinars. In the end, she would be able to use analytics to ensure she was achieving her goals.
  • A & C - Finally, the author needed to figure out what actions would be done and when they would be done. This was to make certain that she wouldn't waste unnecessary time, resources or labour. Activity schedulers and dashboards were key to monitoring and keeping track of progress.
The author concluded that while the SOSTAC model is very useful for businesses, it is not ideal for small and medium business use. The model is a bit too complex for these size of companies. Instead she offered alternatives, like the Inbound-Methodology three-step consumer journey focus methodology, for these companies. 

In Conclusion...

I personally liked the start-up online business example given by Cowley-Cunningham. I thought she was very thorough when describing the key aspects to each step in the SOSTAC Model and relating it to her fictitious business. I agree with her suggestion of small and medium sized businesses using the Inbound-Methodology three-step consumer journey focus methodology. The goal of which is to attract consumers, engage with them and individually delight them. This is done by using the tools highlighted below (Hubspot, 2019).

Inbound Marketing Tools
This simpler and shorter method would be a lot easier for start-up, small and medium sized businesses to adopt. Once these companies grow and increase their market value, then I think they should undertake and implement the SOSTAC Model to their companies.


 References:
Cowley-Cunningham, M. (2016). 'Jellies & Jaffas': Applying PR Smith's SOSTAC Marketing Model to an Online Confectionary Start-Up. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Hubspot (2019). What is Inbound Marketing? [Online]. Available at: https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing (Accessed: 30 October 2019).
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