Market for Home Fragrances Booms in 2004
Eighty Percent of Americans Buy Products to Make Their Homes Smell Good

Stevens, PA March 7, 2005 — The market for home fragrance products, including
candles and candle accessories, sprays, plugs-ins, room fresheners, potpourris, air
fresheners and more, reached $8.3 billion in 2004, rising 14.1 percent over sales of $7.3
billion in 2003. This dynamic growth is fueled by the 80 percent of American adults who
purchase products to make their homes smell good, according to a new consumer insights
study from Unity Marketing.

“Scented candles continue to be the first choice for home fragrance, but the expanding
range of other home fragrance products, including electric plug-ins, diffusers, scent disks,
sprays, potpourris, incense and bed linens sprays, are rapidly growing the overall
market,” explains Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Let Them
Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses — as well as the Classes.

“The most profound shift that has occurred in the consumer market is that having a
pleasant smelling home is not just for special occasions anymore. People expect their
homes to be nicely fragranced everyday and throughout the house. Thus buying and
using home fragrance products which used to be an occasionally luxury is becoming an
everyday necessity for more Americans,” Danziger says.

Unity Marketing’s new Home Fragrance and Candle Report 2005 presents the results of
a survey conducted in February 2005 among 954 recent home fragrance consumers.
Among the key findings:

Women aged 25-to-34 years are the prime target market for home fragrance
While the typical consumer spends $266 per year on all home fragrance products, women
ages 25-to-34 years spend nearly 30 percent more than the average or $340 per year.
They are more active shoppers in all areas of home fragrance products, including candles
and candle accessories.

Candles and home fragrances are luxuries for the ‘masses’
Spending on candles and other home fragrance products cuts almost equally across all
income segments. Even the lowest income households participate actively in the home
fragrance market. This is one reason why mass merchants, like Wal-Mart, Target and
Kmart, the dollar stores and warehouse clubs are the nation’s largest distribution channel
for home fragrance with 28 percent market share.

Trends for growth in 2005-2006 are especially strong for home fragrance products
While candles will continue to be favored as consumers’ first choice for home fragrance,
the category of other home fragrance products, including room sprays, plug-ins, diffusers,
car and closet fresheners, potpourri and essential oils are expected to post the strongest
growth over the next two years. Twenty percent of all consumers, and an even higher
percentage of the high-spending 25-to-34 year old females, expect to spend more on
home fragrance products in the coming year.


About the insights contained in the Home Fragrance and Candle Report 2005

Based upon research among recent home fragrance consumers, this report focuses on
market opportunities available to candle and home fragrance manufacturers and retailers
to help them deliver products and services that satisfy the consumers’ craving to
fragrance their homes. Today candles are the consumers’ first choice in home fragrance
but other products are rapidly gaining traction in the market.

With a focus on the consumer, their buying behavior, needs, desires and preferences, this
study includes research data and statistics about:

This report provides insights into how home fragrance marketers can better understand
the hearts and minds of their consumers. In essence, we uncover “why people buy home
fragrances.”

Order a copy of the 100+ page Home Fragrance & Candle Report, 2005, as either a downloadable PDF file or as a paper copy

For media, Unity Marketing can make tables, charts and graphs available to the media
upon request.

Contact: Pam Danziger, 717-336-1600

 

About Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing

Pamela N. Danziger is a nationally recognized expert in consumer insights for luxury
marketers, whether they sell luxuries to the masses or the ‘classes.’ She is president of
Unity Marketing, a marketing consulting firm she founded in 1992 to unite marketers
with their target markets through consumer insights.

Advising such clients as Lenox, Cartier, Herend, Crystal Cruises, Spring Air, Sears, The
World Gold Council, The Conference Board and American Express, Danziger taps
consumer psychology to help clients navigate and master the changing luxury
marketplace.

Her latest book, Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses — as well as the
Classes, (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $27, hardcover) is in the bookstores now and
available from www.amazon.com. She is also the author of Why People Buy Things
They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior (Chicago:
Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004).

She has appeared on CNN’s In the Money, CNN International, NBC’s Today Show,
CNBC, CNNfn, CBS News Sunday Morning, Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto,
ABC News Now, NPR’s Marketplace and is frequently called upon by the Wall Street
Journal, New York Times, American Demographics, Women’s Wear Daily, Forbes, USA
Today, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune for commentary and
insight.

Unity Marketing publishes market research and consumer insight studies on the luxury
market, jewelry, garden, pet accessories, home furnishings, gifts and collectibles, greeting card and stationery, tabletop, art and wall décor markets, as well as the Luxury Business newsletter.