At a glance
Manuka helped Snuggle Life move from an early-stage idea to a strategically positioned property brand with a clear audience, story and founder-led content system.
The work included
- Brand positioning and audience development
- Purpose, vision and mission
- Brand pillars, personality and tone of voice
- Founder personal-brand strategy
- Four-pillar content strategy
- 18 founder-led video scripts
- Filming-day guidance and confidence support
Snuggle Life was created from Alex Upton’s ambition to raise the standard of shared living.
After 25 years working in property finance, Alex had seen the difference between landlords who created thoughtful homes and those who treated shared accommodation as little more than a numbers exercise.
She wanted to build something better: premium, design-led homes for young professionals who wanted more than simply a room.
But Snuggle Life was still at the beginning of its business journey. With no finished property to show, the brand needed to start building recognition, trust and future demand in a different way.
Alex also needed to move beyond the familiarity of her corporate role and become visible as the founder of a new business.
The strategy
Manuka developed a Brand Strategy and Marketing Bible that defined Snuggle Life’s audience, purpose, position, competitive advantage and voice.
The brand was positioned as:
- A design-led shared-living brand for young professionals who want more than just a room.
- Five brand pillars created a foundation for the business:
- Design-led living
- Customer experience first
- Calm and effortless living
- Community without compromise
- Consistency and trust
The message focused on how the homes should make people feel—not simply their features.
Instead of corporate property language, Snuggle Life could say:
“We create homes you actually want to come back to.”
Building the founder brand
Alex’s experience and perspective were among Snuggle Life’s strongest assets.
Manuka positioned her founder brand around being commercially minded, customer-focused, honest and willing to share the journey as she learned.
Four content pillars translated this into an ongoing strategy:
- Build: The property journey, decisions and challenges
- Insight: Alex’s commercial knowledge and industry perspective
- Lifestyle: The standard of living Snuggle Life wants to create
- Founder: Alex’s personal journey, reflections and lessons
This gave Snuggle Life a way to build trust before the first property was complete.
From strategy to content
Manuka then mapped and scripted 18 founder-led videos for Alex’s filming day.
Topics included why she decided to start Snuggle Life, what people misunderstand about HMOs, how she evaluates properties, why communal space matters and what success looks like to her.
The content was designed to document rather than overproduce. Alex did not need to present herself as somebody with every answer. Sharing the real decisions, uncertainty and progress made the story more human and credible.
The transformation
Snuggle Life now has:
- A clear position within the shared-living market
- A defined customer and competitive advantage
- A consistent personality and tone of voice
- A founder story connected to the business purpose
- An ongoing content framework
- A bank of founder-led videos to begin building visibility and trust
For Alex, the work also created a personal transformation. She became more comfortable stepping beyond her corporate identity and showing more of herself online.
In Alex’s words
“Rosalia helped me understand how to bring more of me into the way I show up on social media, without ever making it feel forced or like I needed to become someone different.”
Build your audience before everything is finished
You do not have to wait until launch to start building awareness around your business.
Manuka helps founders clarify their positioning, uncover the story behind the business and create the content and confidence needed to become visible from the beginning.
