An effective messaging strategy allows existing and potential customers to easily understand what is unique about your company’s offering. It expresses the value of your business in a simple and concise way.

When you have a winning message at the heart of your business strategy, marketing efforts can have a much bigger impact. It can also help employees understand and articulate what the company offers and what it stands for.

Putting customers at the heart of its messaging strategy has helped turn Crewe-based cleaning product manufacturer Fabulosa from a small startup into a retail brand with global reach in less than three years.

Understanding what customers think your business does best was the first step towards effective messaging for the household disinfectant and air freshener manufacturer.

Social media has been the primary tool to enable the business to understand why customers buy its products – and what makes it stand out in a crowded market.

James Sharpe, co-founder and managing director, said the team spends a significant amount of time per day researching on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

What the business has learned from reviews and comments on social media is that customers think Fabulosa’s unique selling point is the ability to offer an unrivalled range of fragrances, which changes with seasons and trends.

The business, which has launched in excess of 100 custom fragrances and sold more than 50 million products worldwide, also uses Kantar to conduct market research. However, James said this was more about reinforcing what the business has already learned from social media.

People come to Fabulosa because they’re tired of purely functional cleaning products with bland fragrances and want something more interesting and fun, James said.

“Our market used to be very boring and run-of-the-mill where everything was launched in lemon, lavender or pine fresh. People love Fabulosa because we offer them a range of fragrances, which makes cleaning fun,” he said.

“All our products have incredible cleaning ability. But it’s all about the fragrances and creating a fun cleaning environment for our customers.”

Once you know what customers think your business does best, it’s important to incorporate that into your messaging. This can help existing and potential customers to easily understand what makes your business unique.

Fabulosa realised that what made it stand out over competitors, in the eyes of customers, was fragrance and fun. This understanding set the tone for the company’s marketing strategy.

“The biggest thing we've done from a communication point of view is making everything fun. People know what cleaning products do. What is our brand identity? Fragrance. That really informs our communication,” James said.

Keeping messaging simple is also important for Fabulosa. With such a diverse range of products, trying to shoehorn everything into its messaging would risk overwhelming customers. Instead, the company focuses on the experience of using its products.

“It’s all about unique fragrances, that’s why customers choose us. We have a strong tagline – ‘That Fabulosa Feeling’ – and we always focus on that,” James explained.

For Fabulosa, social media is not only the primary source of customer feedback, it is also the company’s preferred way to communicate with customers.

“The best way to communicate is through social media. Make sure you embrace what customers think you do best and use it to communicate effectively,” James said.