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The queens of clean

Sophie Hinchliffe @mrshinchhome

Were you one of the millions globally who decided to do a complete house declutter after watching a few episodes of the Netflix series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo? Or perhaps, you’re a fan of the UK’s Mrs Hinch, aka Sophie Hinchliffe – she’s made cleaning your house cool. 

Both Marie Kondo and Sophie Hinchliffe influence their followers with their product recommendations plus cleaning and organising tips that they share via their social media channels, books, websites and TV appearances. When talking about the power of their influence, we mean products completely selling out. So cleaning brands, listen up.

The KonMari effect

Marie Kondo was a cleaning consultant in Japan when she published her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up in 2014. She quickly became well known for her “KonMari Method” for decluttering, and minimising items in one’s home. 

The key consideration towards determining if something stays or goes she advises, is whether it sparks joy. There’s an emotive pull in her methodology, and the idea is that a home as well as its owner is happier and less stressed, and moreover that life is simplified following a big declutter. 

As well as the hugely successful Netflix series and a selection of books, Kondo has also set up her KonMari Consultants business, with one of her over 200 certified consultants booked to help tidy your house. Most she recently launched an online homewares store. 

The Hinch clinch

Sophie Hinchliffe was a hairdresser who in March 2018 decided to start her Instagram account, @mrshinchhome as a way of sharing updates with family and friends of the house she and her husband were renovating. Not long after starting the account, she decided to publish cleaning tips via her Instagram Stories, presenting in a quirky and humorous way incorporating music and giving her cleaning appliances funny names, which attracted huge views. 

Her total followers at the time of writing is 2.9 million. That’s a pretty crazy statistic to think about! She received a massive boost in fans, or Hinchers as she calls them, when she appeared a few times on morning TV in the UK sharing cleaning hacks, telling her story and revealing how cleaning helped her anxiety. She publishes content to her Instagram feed usually once or twice a week, however you’ll generally find her using Instagram Stories on a daily basis. Her fans love her because she’s down-to-earth, relatable and her tips aren’t difficult to follow. Sophie, aka Mrs Hinch, also published a book in April 2019. 

Why authenticity wins

While both Marie Kondo and Sophie Hinchliffe’s profiles grew astronomically when they appeared on TV/Netflix, it’s important to mention that they are each loved by their adoring fans around the world because they’re authentic, which is the key for any online brand. 

They’re making cleaning and decluttering fun and easy, and consuming their content is pretty quick so it’s possible to do anytime and anywhere. Plus they’re real, genuine people and this comes through in what they’re doing.

They’re not alone in the world of cleaning and decluttering style influencers. Look closer to home in Australia, and you’ll find bloggers and Instagrammers who are sharing their favourite tips every day, too.

Clean-fluencers closer to home

Kat Springer, The Organised Housewife, has been publishing blogs and social posts for many years, and has a tribe of devoted fans who love her authenticity and affordable ideas for organising a home, cooking, managing finances and sharing the realities of daily family life. 

Mums who Clean is a Facebook group in which over 13,000 Aussie mums connect and share information. There is also an Instagram page of the same name run by two mums, Karen and Yvonne, who review cleaning products.

Also in Australia, @theocdbychristine_ is a professional home organiser based in Sydney. Not only does she offer home decluttering services, but her Instagram feed is full of useful tips, plus before-and-after videos of spaces she’s tidied. Meanwhile, @househomelove mixes house organising with interior styling, parenting and healthy living.

Many Australian influencers mix organising and decluttering with home renovating and styling, plus, for example, parenting and travel, meaning their content crosses a few different interests or incorporates their business. This adds extra dimensions for any brand who may wish to collaborate with them.

How to utilise influencers

Most brands these days consider investing a portion of marketing budget towards influencer marketing – if it’s right for their brand, product and campaign. It’s crucial that a brand takes the time to research a list of influencers, and assess who they would like to work with, why and the type of collaboration they’re looking for.

A brand should look at each of the digital channels the influencer utilises and analyse different elements, including engagement levels, their tone of voice, passions and what they create content about, how proactive they are especially in terms of communicating with their fans, their content creation capabilities, alignment with the brand and its products, opportunity to amplify the influencer content via paid social advertising, total followers and if they’d like to collaborate in the short- or long-term. 

If real people like Mrs Hinch and Marie Kondo can entertain and educate their fans by making cleaning and tidying both fun and joyful, then this certainly serves to drive opinion that they and those influencers who are similar can collaborate with a brand that fits their own aesthetic and passions. 

For a brand, the opportunity to collaborate with an influencer who genuinely loves their products – and who can create engaging content driving awareness about those products, benefits and tips for application – ultimately means that motivation to trial, and therefore to grow sales, is really driven, the brand profile is raised and further word of mouth recommendations occur.


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