Impact of SOSTAC Planning Framework on Waitrose's Marketing Strategy

This report discusses the importance of using the SOSTAC planning framework in implementing a corporation's strategy in the market place. It highlights the significance of segmentation, positioning, and targeting in introducing a new product to the market. The report also emphasizes the role of pest control in assessing external environmental factors that can impact internal strategy. Furthermore, it notes the importance of Gantt charts in presenting business activities along with time span and costs incurred. The main objective of Waitrose is to provide customer satisfaction and increase profits, which can be achieved by using this framework. It provides information after the launching of a product and helps evaluate the results.

Marketing
Communication
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Main body........................................................................................................................................5
All elements of SOSTAC framework to implement the campaign.............................................5
Situation Analysis........................................................................................................................6
Marketing objective.....................................................................................................................7
Strategy........................................................................................................................................8
Tactics..........................................................................................................................................9
Action.........................................................................................................................................10
Control.......................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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ILLUSTRATION INDEX
Illustration 1: SOSTAC planning model..........................................................................................4
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INDEX OF TABLES
Table 1: The Gantt chart................................................................................................................10
Table 2: Cost required per activities..............................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing communication is a part of marketing mix which defines 4 P's of marketing
(Black, 2013). It includes integrated marketing communication for interacting with customers.
The marketing communications have two different forms one is a channel and other is a tool in
which Channel focus on communicating messages to its desired market and tools of marketing
communications are advertising, promotion, personal selling, direct marketing etc. Present report
is based on Waitrose, a chain house of super market, in England which sells organic products
(Waitrose. About us, 2016). Furthermore, report lays emphasis on SOSTAC planning framework
where Waitrose is launching breakfast combo pack “Delicious morning Meal”. For this purpose,
integrated marketing communication campaign with the help of SOSTAC planning framework
has been explained.
MAIN BODY
All elements of SOSTAC framework to implement the campaign
SOSTAC was developed in the 1990s and it is a planned method for marketing and
communication coupled with the basic public relation tools (Argenti, 2012). SOSTAC is a
framework which is used by the company to integrate the marketing campaign or at the time of
producing new product in the market.
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Situation Analysis
In the framework of SOSTAC, situation analysis stands for where we are now (Keegan
and Green, 2014). As Waitrose is launching a new product, so the first process of company is to
analyze the market trend of country, current marketing strategy and performance of the
company, PEST factor, knowledge related to consumer behavior etc. This situation analysis will
also provide an overview of the cited company.
Before starting or launching a new product, it is essential to evaluate a clear picture of
customer behavior (Eagle and et.al., 2013). “Delicious morning Meal” is going to be introduced
so it is important to analyze the behavior of employees, students and youth.
PEST analysis
Political factor- It basically relates to government intervenes in the economy while
launching new product (Schultz, 2012). Areas like tax policy, labor law, trade restrictions and
political stability are to be kept in mind at the time of introducing new breakfast meal for the
employees and students as government has a high impact on the functioning of the company.
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Illustration 1: SOSTAC planning model
(Source: Adams, 2011)

Economic factor- It includes inflation rate, economic growth, interest rate etc. that are to
be analyzed before Waitrose is going to launch a specified product. Interest rate affects
Waitrose’s cost of capital which results in increasing or decreasing the revenue of the company.
Social factor- It includes all the cultural factors, health consciousness, age distribution
etc (Kim and Ko, 2012). While introducing “Delicious morning Meal” in the market, business
must analyze cultural factors and provide hygienic food with full nutrient to their employees as
well as customers. As changes in social factors affect the demand of company's product so it is
very necessary to focus on social factors.
Technological factors- It includes technology incentives, technology changes, R&D
activity etc. (Bhatia and Jain, 2013). To increase the demand of new product they have to focus
on the updated or new technology as it will attract the customers. Furthermore, it will lead to
innovation and will also help in increasing the quality of the food in the company etc.
Current marketing communication strategy
To increase the sales and number of customers, marketing communication is required.
Currently, marketing communication strategy adopted by the cited company is newspaper,
television, leaflets, Facebook, Google etc (About us, 2016). Nowadays, youth is very familiar
with the electronic media and other means. From these sources of media, they can make
advertisement for the new product like “Delicious morning Meal”. They can also advertize on
Google, Facebook, YouTube, television etc. It can also be done on those places where huge
amount of youths is available. Waitrose can advertise at the international level so that they get to
know about the different types of strategies operating Abroad.
Marketing objective
The next process is where do we want to be which defines what are the goals and
objectives of the Waitrose to achieve public attractiveness and the sales of the company as well
as the profits. They have to be specific about the goals which can be developed by the SMART
model.
For creating efficient and marketing campaign, SMART marketing approach is used as a
blueprint (Goneos-Malka, Grobler and Strasheim, 2013). It covers specific, measurable,
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achievable, timed and realistic objectives which help in achieving a successful marketing
approach.
Specific- To maximize the efficiency, it is important for Waitrose to focus on specific
goal. As there are many marketing objectives to achieve but need of each objective should have
its own plan so that it can be more effective. While launching “Delicious morning Meal”,
specific objective on which company should focus is providing full nutrient and hygienic
breakfast to the customers.
Measurable- Success of the marketing plan can be determined by measuring the goals
(Tafesse and Korneliussen, 2013). Number of units sold, total sales, profit, performance etc. are
the measurable aspects. This will help and make the Waitrose to quickly react on these areas
where they are below the targets.
Achievable- Setting achievable goals for “Delicious morning Meal” will also create
confidence among company's internal team. Earlier, if Waitrose profit growth is 20% then they
have to set a marketing goal in such a way that now they can achieve 40-50% of profit which
motivates the staff members to achieve the success.
Realistic- Objective must be realistic and relevant (Csikósová, Antošová and Čulková,
2014). Objectives made by the Waitrose must be relevant because irrelevant goals will distract
the organization from achieving them.
Timed- For producing a new product, there should be an attaching time line. By this,
company can focus on the objective and will work on the goals to attain within the time line
(Black, 2013). For Waitrose, for introducing “Delicious morning Meal”, they should try to make
timely based objective and then analyze the actual result with the earlier outcome. It will help the
cited company to achieve the overall goals related to the new product.
Strategy
To maintain and promote the new product by the Waitrose they have to adopt many
marketing strategies. Some of them are:
STP strategy
Segmentation- It is a process of division of market place into small distant groups of
buyer on the basis of user’s need behavior etc (Keegan and Green, 2014). Market segmentation
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is a division of customers into small groups of people with common characteristics and needs.
The market can be segmented on the basis of demographic, geographic, behavioral etc. As,
Waitrose is producing a new product and they can segment the market on the basis of
geographic, by selling “Delicious morning Meal” at colleges, offices, institutes etc. which helps
is promoting the new product.
Targeting- It is a process in which one particular market is focused with a motive to
evaluate the potential and commercial attractiveness (Schultz, 2012). Waitrose targeted
employees and the students for the “Delicious morning Meal” because they demanded for more
light food. However, these customers spend more money on breakfast rather than focusing on the
heavy food.
Positioning- It is a process of arranging a product in such a way so that it can occupy
distinctive, clear and desirable relative to competing products (Bhatia and Jain, 2013). This
strategy is adopted by the Waitrose to attract as well as increase the sale of the company which
can be done by providing hygienic breakfast at the affordable price. To achieve this strategy,
company can select the marketing mix Rather than focusing on the competitors, as their main
focus is on the new product which is launched.
3 P's strategy
Push- In order to go in the distribution channel Waitrose can distribute the new product
“Delicious morning Meal” to the retailer or to the distributor to promote the product (About us,
2016).
Pull- Waitrose launched the product according to the customers need. This is a strategy
in which the product is firstly communicated to the consumers with an aim to attract whole seller
or retailer.
Profile- This strategy is used to satisfy the Waitrose promotional goals. They normally
focus on satisfying stakeholder's needs.
Tactics
Tactic solves the problem of how exactly do we get goals. The problem can be solving by
the Waitrose by analyzing of marketing mix.
7 P's
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Product- The product which Waitrose is launching is “Delicious morning Meal”. This is
a breakfast combo pack which includes wheat gram, pesto scrambled eggs and milk.
Price- The price of the new product is affordable, cost effective, so that the students and
children can easily purchase this combo.
Place- The product should be available on those stores where the targeted customers find
it easy to purchase.
Promotion- There are many ways of promotion, Waitrose can choose to advertise, sales
promotion, sales promotion and many more, to increase the customers, sales as well as the profits
(About us, 2016). They can also go for creative positioning or by giving messages to the
customers about the “Delicious morning Meal”.
People- People which are related to the business are staff, employees, etc. of the
Waitrose. They have important part in marketing as they provide superior services to the clients,
targeted customers.
Process- To maximize the cost Waitrose has to make sure that they have well tailored
process. The process should be clearly defined and it also ensures that same level of service is
delivered to every customer (Kim and Ko, 2012).
Physical evidence- The physical evidence is the services or the product which is
delivered to the target customer. In Waitrose, the product is the breakfast combos “Delicious
morning Meal” Which includes wheat gram, pesto scrambled eggs and milk.
Action
Action is the implementation of the plan which is done by the company for launching
new product (Tafesse and Korneliussen, 2013). Waitrose can implement the plan with the help of
Gantt chart. This is the useful way which shows the total activities displayed against the time.
The first activity covered in this plan is marketing research which is done on the basis of
situation analysis and from pest analysis. The second activity is setting up of objectives which
are done by adopting SMART model. In next step, strategies which is adopted is STP strategy to
maintain and promote the “Delicious morning Meal” in the market. The last step is tactics which
is done to analyze the marketing mix.
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Table 1: The Gantt chart
Activities/
Weeks
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Marketing
research
Setting
objectives(SM
ART
objectives)
Strategies(Seg
mentation,
positioning
and targeting)
Tactics
Implementing
strategies
Revising
strategies
Modifications
This Gantt chart shows that it takes 4 weeks to complete the marketing research, 2months
for setting up of objectives. To promote the product in the market it covers 3 weeks and 1month
for analyzing the marketing mix. For revising the strategies and for modification, it takes 1
month for each. The total weeks Waitrose require for integrating the marketing communication is
14 weeks.
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Table 2: Cost required per activities
Activities Costing (pound)
Marketing research 150
Strategies 170
Tactics 120
Implementing strategies 180
Modification 100
The cost required for all these activities are 720 Pound.
Control
Key performance indicator is a metric, evaluates the success of the performance (Bhatia
and Jain, 2013). It is the indicator which provides information after the launching of the product.
In Waitrose, the main objective of the company is to provide satisfaction to the customer and
increase the profits well as sales. With the help of this indicator, Waitrose can evaluate the result.
After this, if the customers are not satisfied or they are not earning profit to control this, then the
company again does market research to with a motive to satisfy the customers and provide cost
effective products.
CONCLUSION
The aforementioned report concludes that SOSTAC planning framework is helpful in
implementing strategy of corporation in the market place. It assists the organization to
communicate regarding new product and services to end users by using effective strategy.
Furthermore, pest control is helpful to assess external environment so that management can
modify internal strategy of the corporation. It can also be said that segmentation, position and
targeting are crucial aspect associated with project which facilitates in introducing the product in
the marketplace. Apart from this, Gantt chart enables the organization to present all its business
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activities along with time span and further it tells about the cost incur in each marketing
activities.
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