Lauren Hannifan, co-founder of Snug, shares how she built a standout D2C brand, disrupted the furniture industry, and created impactful customer experiences on a budget.

Lauren's Career and Advice

Tell us about your journey co-founding Snug and the key turning points that helped scale it from an idea to a multi-million-pound brand.

Snug was born out of a poor experience my co-founder, now husband, and I had when shopping for furniture for our first flat together in London. All of the stores were physical, everything was made to order which meant lead times of 8-12 weeks for a sofa, and when it finally arrived at our 4th story flat with no elevator, we struggled to get it upstairs and through the door frame and wonky hallway. 

Being young professionals and customers with a genuine need, we used our experience to craft a customer-centric experience that would rival the current slow-paced and outdated furniture industry. 

What seems obvious now, wasn’t so obvious back in 2018 in the pre-Instagram Reels, pre-TikTok era, but we decided to heavily lean into ‘brand’ and ‘community’, ensuring that Snug positioned itself as a challenger brand to demonstrate: ‘That was the old way. Snug is the new way.’ Due to strong branding, word of mouth, and a genuinely superior customer experience with shipping days as soon as 24 hours, we grew notoriety and recognition quite quickly. 

Looking back at your entrepreneurial journey, what advice would you give your younger self before launching Snug?

Of course, there’s always tactical advice with 20/20 hindsight—like diversifying our manufacturing across different suppliers to avoid the 2020 shipping crisis or seeking outside investment at just the right time. But aside from that, I think I would make an effort to de-couple my self worth from the brand itself. When you’re creating something that is an extension of you, it's difficult to not feel down or upset when market conditions are hard, a crisis affects your brand, or social media comments all get a bit too much. 

That took a while for me to understand, but now I can see clearly how it is much healthier for your mental well being to create some boundaries between work and regular life. You can only operate at 200% for so long before something has to give. 

Entrepreneurship Lessons

Can you share a campaign or activation that truly captured Snug’s brand essence and resonated deeply with your audience?

In 2022, we staged a PR stunt where we got a Snug sofa into the smallest house in the UK, which happened to be in Wales. This stunt was perfect for us because it showcased the modularity and uniqueness of our sofas being able to assemble and disassemble in less than 3 minutes to literally fit any doorway or awkward space. This was our most successful campaign at the time, grabbing almost 70 national headlines such as ‘UK’s Smallest House gets First Sofa in Over 400 Years.’ It was brilliant, cheeky, and exactly the kind of air time we wanted as a sofa brand. 

We had an internal mantra: “if it looks like another sofa brand could do it, it's not Snug enough.” We really wanted to challenge what ‘marketing’ for a sofa brand could look like, often avoiding the picture perfect PR shoots and classic paid placements in Home & Garden. They just weren’t for us. 

Having bootstrapped Snug’s growth initially, what are your top tips for getting the most impact from a limited marketing budget?

Get focused - its easy to get distracted with everything you ‘could do’ but zoning in and double down on what’s working is the best place to prioritise limited time and budget. 

Mimicking your competitors is a surefire way to land at the average - What I mean by this is, if you want to make waves and stand out, you need to do things differently. One of the earliest memories I have of Snug’s strategy was to be THE BEST on channels where our competitors were not. At the time, we chose social media and PR stunts because no one was playing in this space in a meaningful way. Your budget goes further when fewer competitors are using the same channels.

Hire people with a growth mindset - Fixed mindset people can be a killer for any business. We wanted fresh ideas and new perspectives. The furniture industry is centuries old - we wanted to flip it on its head. We were always trying new things. By the time our competitors would catch on to the tactics we were using, we’d already tried it and failed 10 times before we got it right. We saw our failures to be as valuable, if not more, than our successes. 

What was it like navigating Snug through acquisitions and mergers, and what were the biggest lessons you learned during that process?

Navigating Snug through acquisitions was tough, I’ll be honest. You lose control in many areas and have a lot more people to please. And it doesn’t always align with your vision. I learned many things from both our acquisitions - some good, some bad, but all valuable to my growth. One of the biggest lessons I learned was around stakeholder management and ensuring that you have the data to back-up your ideas and support your claims. There are many people to please in a boardroom, make sure you have something that will address everyone. 

You’ve spoken about the power of small yet impactful brand activations. What advice do you have for brands looking to create meaningful customer experiences on a budget?

Oftentimes it comes down to the small moments that are just between the brand and the customer. Make them feel seen and heard. Whether its a clever piece of copy that makes someone smile, adding a personal spin to every (and I mean every) social comment or customer email, or adding popcorn and a movie playlist in their sofa delivery - try to find micro moments where you can bring your customer into your brand world and make them feel special. It lets them know you’ve thought about them and it helps you expand their customer journey past the point where they part ways with their money. That’s how you build advocates. 

What do you see as the biggest opportunities for D2C brands in the furniture space over the next few years?

I think there’s so much room for innovation and personalisation here from bespoke apps for tracking the making-of your product through to delivery and even better, onto smart technology. I’m excited to see what happens in the home space in the coming years. 

Quick-fire questions

• What is your favourite social media platform, and why? 

Instagram and TikTok are both doing it for me these days. Recently Instagram has come out with several really cool features I’ve been enjoying trialling out such as trial reels. I love TikTok for binging topics and for super easy editing. 

• What’s one trend in marketing you predict will shape the industry in 2025?

AI! This is such a broad topic but I’ve spent the past 8 months delving really deep into this space, testing over 30 different tools and trying to find efficiencies in the work I do. I truly believe AI will disrupt every industry, its just a matter of time. Recently I’ve been working with virtual influencers and the development teams behind them to understand how this emerging technology is being used. Of course, there’s many other use cases for AI which I’ve benefited from first hand but virtual influencers is one of the more thought provoking ones I’ve come across! 

• Is there a recent marketing campaign from any brand that really caught your attention, and why? 

I love the recent Ritz Carlton x Late Checkout collaboration. It felt modern and fresh for the hotel chain, yet very on brand. The way they marketed it through a social media series, focusing on storytelling and characters. I also think brands like REFY and Odd Muse are doing an excellent job of keeping their mega-fans highly engaged on broadcast channels! 

• How many unopened emails do you currently have in your inbox?

Haha - at least 70! 

• If you had to describe Snug’s brand personality in three words, what would they be?

Cheeky, Irreverent, and and Welcoming.

• What is one of your proudest moments in your career?

It would probably have to be overseeing the ideation, production, strategy, and media buying of one of our national TV campaigns. Not only was it incredible to see our brand on national TV but I loved everything from approving scripting, to being on a film set in Bulgaria, to learning about the media buying process. It was incredible first-hand experience in an area that I probably wouldn’t have been given a chance to run without creating my own brand. Experiences like that, I’ll remember for a very long time. 

• What is something you’re still looking forward to achieving in your career?

I am actually really excited to take everything I’ve learned over the past 6 years and apply that skill set to another brand. I’m keen to gain experience in global marketing strategy and managing different markets. Whatever is coming my way, I’m very open to it and grateful for the successes and challenges Snug has thrown at me because it has built up resilience and perseverance.