The use of SOSTAC framework to develop an effective marketing plan for a Small Medium Enterprises -SME.
How can one assist a SME with an effective Marketing Plan?
SME’s are increasing at an alarming frequency and with this increase, brands will be born. In light of assisting the SME’s to fully reap the benefits of an effective marketing plan I recommend the use of Situation analysis, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action and Control( SOSTAC) framework which offers a comprehensive solution starting with a situation analysis to identify where the company is right now followed by the development of objectives outlining where it seeks to get to.
Right at the beginning of any plan, the analysis of the current status quo should be taken into consideration in order to gain grip of the market and progressively launch its brand among consumers. The analysis of the goal performance of the company is necessary and seeking insight of the consumers in pursuit of improving the current delivery of product offerings or services in the business.
Getting the most out of resources which resembles your organisation distinctiveness is a way that an SME can adopt. Integrating the SWOT analysis in a strategy for the business will not only paint a clearer picture for the company, but it provides a business with the opportunity to forge relations throughout the organisation
Objectives
This segment outlines where the business wants to see itself ; the objectives might comprise long term or short term goals. These objectives can be planned by means of the SMART model, explained in the diagram below.
The use of these objectives is based on the reasons of what the business would like to achieve. In support of these objectives one could also note the five benefits that could be realized by using interest marketing; namely sell which focuses on the finding and retaining targets at the end of a period, serve which aims to look into the satisfaction the customers derives from the offerings., speak the manner in which a business engages with customers, save this addresses the substantial savings the SME could make with regards to overheads, and sizzle focuses on how the business websites entices potential consumers to stick around and for how long.
Strategy
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP)-Strategy is the most vital aspect that should be employed by any business because it explains how the business aims to achieve its objectives. This element of SOSTAC investigates integrating different strategies online and offline. With keen interest of placing sequence in the centre. In a quest to identify what sort of media will be used to target customers, strategy can be instrumental.
Tactics
The usage of a variety of communication channels to reach customers can be a method of how a business wants to get where it aims to be in future. The e-marketing mix which could be interesting especially to tech savvy customers. The content used in strategy should be detailed in this section . Since mostly a SME is relatively small, the choices of which Internet strategies to use are limited. So they will use Social Networking sites such as Business Facebook, WhatsApp Business and any other affordable platforms in order to achieve the objectives that were set out.
We live in an evolving world which has changed the way businesses do Marketing, which was previously restricted to a particular location. This has however changed with the use of internet and its potential as a marketing tool which has broaden the base of targeted customer and removed the geographical limitations. It is rather difficult in today’s economy for a SME to succeed without the use of internet, most of the world’s economy is reliant on the internet.
Action
The roles and responsibilities should be discussed in detail and shared according to skills and availability of resources. Where agreeable, affordable, and necessary the use of external agencies can be explored to enhance the actions to be carried forward in a SME.
Control
Plans that are supported must to be measured to see whether the desired objectives have been met. There are different mediums that can be measured; for example the number of site visitors, the number of repeat visitors, and the number of Facebook likes. A control panel can be built that tracks the performance of each objective against strategy and tactic.
