If terms like “messaging” and “positioning” make you sceptical, you’re not alone. For many ingredient suppliers, brand messaging can feel like window dressing: something marketing teams obsess over while everyone else focuses on the “real” work.
But effective messaging isn’t superficial. Done correctly, it’s one of the most strategic investments your business can make.
What Brand Messaging Isn’t
It’s not your mission statement. It’s not a catchy tagline. It’s not a document filled with buzzwords like “synergy” and “thought leadership.”
Too often, brand messaging is treated as a formality: created in isolation, loaded with industry jargon, then quietly forgotten once the website launches.
That’s not messaging. That’s performative theatre.
What It Is (and Why It Matters)
At its foundation, brand messaging is about strategic clarity. It articulates:
- Who you are
- What you do
- Why it matters
- And who it’s for
Not just internally, but consistently across every touchpoint: your website, trade show materials, customer communications, technical documentation, and social content. When executed well, it shapes your entire business narrative.
Effective messaging gives your sales team a coherent story. It helps formulators quickly understand your value proposition and differentiation. It makes your brand feel consistent, confident, and authentic.
The Power of Specificity
Consider these two approaches:
Generic: “A leading solutions provider in the health and wellness space offering innovative ingredients for modern formulations.”
Specific: “We help personal care brands develop clinically backed, plant-based actives that meet clean beauty standards.”
Or:
Generic: “Premium ingredient supplier delivering excellence in nutrition.”
Specific: “We provide bioavailable mineral chelates that improve absorption rates in sports nutrition formulations.”
Same businesses, completely different impact.
Signs You Have Style Without Substance
- Your website contains claims that could describe any ingredient supplier
- Your team members describe your offerings inconsistently
- At trade shows, you frequently hear: “So what exactly makes you different?”
- Formulators struggle to understand your speciality after reading your materials
- Your standard company description sounds like a committee wrote it
How to Transform Your Messaging
Start with your audience. What genuinely matters to formulators and brand owners in your space? Then get specific.
Replace corporate jargon with clarity. Articulate what you do in straightforward language, and build your messaging around the tangible value you deliver to the personal care and nutraceutical industries.
This might involve:
- Defining your unique position in the supply chain
- Identifying the specific formulation challenges you solve
- Articulating your sustainability story with concrete details
- Highlighting your technical expertise in accessible language
The objective isn’t complexity or cleverness. It’s to sound like you: consistently and compellingly.
Quick Messaging Test
Ask yourself:
- If someone read your About page out loud, would your team recognise it as your company?
- Could your competitors make the same claims you’re making?
- Does your messaging work equally well in a sales conversation as on a website?
- Can you explain your value in one sentence without using industry buzzwords?
Where to Start
Begin by listing the three most common questions formulators ask about your ingredients. Your messaging should answer these questions clearly and quickly.
Next, identify what truly differentiates you. Is it your extraction process? Your sourcing relationships? Your regulatory expertise? Make this the foundation of your narrative.
Finally, test your messaging with actual customers. Their feedback will reveal whether you’re achieving clarity or just creating more corporate speak.
According to McKinsey, B2B companies with strong, consistent messaging are 20% more likely to outperform their peers. Clear messaging becomes your competitive advantage in the ingredient space, where technical specifications often dominate conversations.
The Bottom Line
If you don’t define your message, others will define it for you: customers, competitors, or whoever last updated your website. The result is market confusion and missed opportunities.
Strong brand messaging isn’t decorative. When formulators instantly understand what you offer and why it matters, you create connections that strengthen every function from product development to customer retention.
People fill in the blanks without clarity and rarely get it right.
Ready to move beyond generic messaging? At The Ash Studio, we help ingredient companies develop clear, strategic narratives that actually resonate with formulators and brand owners. Get in touch to discover how authentic messaging can transform your market position.