Marketing Strategy: SOSTAC Analysis for British Telecom in Romania

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of British Telecom's expansion strategy into Romania, utilizing the SOSTAC model. The report begins with an introduction to the SOSTAC framework, highlighting its effectiveness in structuring marketing campaigns, particularly in the context of digital marketing and international business expansion. The 'Situation' stage of the SOSTAC model is explored, focusing on the political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) factors influencing British Telecom's operations in Romania. The political analysis discusses the stability of the capital market and the impact of political tensions, while the economic analysis evaluates macroeconomic indicators, tax rates, and market stability. The social analysis examines investor access and transaction fees, and the technological analysis assesses internet opportunities and the existing infrastructure. The report then moves on to the 'Objectives' stage, emphasizing the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) for setting objectives. Finally, the report concludes by summarizing the application of the SOSTAC model and the key findings related to the situational analysis and the objectives set for British Telecom's Romanian venture. The report uses references to support the analysis and findings.

PRINCIPLES AND
PRACTICS OF
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
 SOSTAC MODEL
 Situation
 Hofstede of Romania as compared to UK
 Objectives
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
 SOSTAC is considered as one of the most popular and effective marketing tool which
makes the structuring campaigns very easy.
 With the rapid increase in the digital marketing, most of the brands decided to increase
their presence as well as expanding their business in other countries and platforms
without even doing the thorough research.
 Planning is the most important process which helps in achieving the goals.
 The SOSTAC methodology is model for planning which means Strategies, Objectives,
Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control.

CONTINUE…
 British Telecom is multinational holding company in telecommunications which is
headquartered in London, UK.
 It decided to expand its business from Europe to Romania.
 So, in order to face the success and minimize the negative impacts of any macro and
micro environmental factors, there is a need to use the SOSTAC model so that the
company can make various strategies after analysing the situation of the market and the
country.

SOSTAC MODEL
Situation
 This is the first stage of implementation in the methodology of SOSTAC which
establishes a situational analysis.
 It defines and analyses the digital customers, performs the SWOT or PEST analysis
along with analysing the competition.
 As the British Telecom decided to expand its operations in Romania, it is must to do the
situational analysis of the country.

CONTINUE…
Political
 Positive: The capital market of Romania is being much more stable after implementing
the European directives. This lead to safeguarding the market integrity, protecting the
investors which helps in governing the activities of the intermediaries which are
authorized which further due to legislation contributes in promoting transparent, fair
and the efficient financial markets.
 Negative: The political situation of Romania is very tense. The main political factor
which can affect the British Telecom is the rejection of fusion between the Bucharest
Stock Exchange (BSE) and the Sibiu Monetary-Financial and the Commodities
Exchange (BMFMS). The shareholders of the Bucharest rejected the fusion between
these stock exchanges in 2006.

CONTINUE…
Economical
 Positive: The macroeconomic indicators contributed in positive evolution in last many
years which will also impact the capital market positively. There is even positive evolution
on the Romanian market due to the main stock exchange. The income tax is and the
corporate income tax which come under unique tax is also decreased by 16% which does
not happen in any other country. Also, the yearly performance of the BET index is
considered to be stable since few years which was 3 times more than the medium interest
rates for the purpose of depositing on the Romanian market.
 Negative: Even though positive evolution was seen by the main macroeconomics
indicators, but still the stability was not reached to the point. There was a great negative
difference between the main macroeconomics and the indicators of other countries.
Though the process of catching up of the other countries but the duration of the process is
too high which takes a long period of time.

CONTINUE…
Social
 Positive: Though it was already described that the investors’ access on the Romanian
market became very easy so they need to choose a Financial Investment company and
brokerage. The companies number reached 73 in 2007 and the bigger companies were
those which are a part of the bank. As the number of companies will increasingly be
active on the market, the fees will be decreased accordingly.
 Negative: The access of the investors on the capital market of Romania became much
easier since many years but on the same time the transaction fees which was applied to
the investors by the companies of Financial Investment are much high. Among these,
those which are a part of the bank do not offer the possibility to automatically credit the
investment account by the giro account of bank, both accounts being opened from the
same group at the institutions.

CONTINUE…
Technological
 Positive: As the technology is becoming advanced day by day, the internet is becoming
a great opportunity for the capital market of Romania as the investors can trade the
sticks and other titles. This procedure in common in the developed in the developed
countries.
 Negative: This was identified that no system was there on the BSE which gives
permission to the orders to be routed, so that the introduction of the internet is
automatically done in the trade system after the verifications of the specifications such
as quotes, market, price, pieces, validity date if the selling of shares must be done.

Hofstede of Romania as compared to UK

Objectives
This is the second stage of the SOSTAC model where the main focus is on the objectives of
the strategy. But the objective must be SMART which means Smart, Measurable,
Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound.
 Providing world-class telecommunications, products and services and developing and
exploiting the networks at home and overseas.
 Meeting the customer’ requirements in Romania.
 Sustaining the earnings growth of group on the behalf of shareholders.
 Making a fitting contribution to the community of Romania which is the country in
which the BT wants to expand its business.
 To enhance the experience of customers in Romania.
 To accelerate the products of the company to the market times.
 To reduce the cost base of BT.

CONCLUSION
 The SOSTAC model was used in order to perform the situational analysis of Romania
as the British Telecom needs to expand its operations in Romania from Europe.
 It mainly focussed on the two elements of SOSTAC i.e., Situation and the Objectives.
 The Situational Analysis was done using the PEST Analysis and the objectives decided
were SMART.

REFERENCES
 Bank, J.M., 2020. Establishment and expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries. The
Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas.
 Chasovschia, C. and et.al., 2016. The Quality of Public Services-Management of Urban
Markets in Romania.
 Hofstede Insights Romania and the UK country comparison, 2020. [ONLINE]
Available through :< https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Hofstede-Insights-Romania-
and-the-UK-country-comparison-Anon-nd_fig1_335172359>
 Morton, R. and Nesi, H., 2020. Institutional collaboration in the creation of digital
linguistic resources: the case of the British Telecom correspondence
corpus. Communities, Archives and New Collaborative Practices, pp.in-press.
 Petrişor, A.I. and Petrişor, L.E., 2018. Transitional dynamics based trend analysis of
land cover and use changes in Romania during 1990-2012. Present Environment and
Sustainable Development. 12(2). pp.215-231.
 Preda, I., 2019. SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT SYSTEM IN
ROMANIA. Knowledge Horizons. Economics. 11(2). pp.66-76.