Candles Are Favorite Choice for Home Fragrancing, According to New Study by Unity Marketing; Nearly Seventy Percent of Americans Bought Candles in Past Year.

STEVENS, Pa. -- While the market for home fragrance products booms, candles remain consumers' top choice for fragrancing their home. With sales reaching $3.7 billion in 2004, candles accounted for just under half of the total $8.3 billion home fragrance market.

"Some 80 percent of American households use some form of home fragrance product," explains Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses -- as well as the Classes. "Scented candles are the first choice in home fragrance, while other types of home fragrance products are becoming more widely available at mass retailers and in grocery stores."

In today's candle market, scent is everything. Some 70 percent of candle consumers agree with the statement, "I buy candles mostly for the scent, so the fragrance, not the style or design, is the most important factor when I buy candles."

But while fragrance is the most important reason why people buy candles, their influence on mood is another significant motivator for candle purchase. The majority of candle consumers agree with the following, "I regularly burn candles to help me relax from the stress of my life."

"While consumers today have many different options for adding fragrance to their home, including electric plug-ins, diffusers, scent disks, sprays, potpourris, incense and bed linens sprays, candles alone are multi-sensory, imparting both scent to the home and a beautiful, romantic glow that hearkens back to an earlier time," Danziger says. "Candles have a metaphysical quality that electric diffusers or room sprays will never approach."

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

Based upon research conducted in February 2005 among 954 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.

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

--Home fragrances and candle market size and growth, including candles, home fragrance products, candle and lighting accessories and air purifiers

--Demographics of the home fragrance market

--Home fragrance buying behavior, including what they buy, where they shop, how much they spend, their favorite scents and brands

--Psychographic profiles and segmentation of the home fragrance market

To order a copy of the Home Fragrance & Candle Report, 2005, use this link http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/reports2/candles/candles_2005.html

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

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. She taps consumer psychology to advise clients such as Lenox, Cartier, Herend, Crystal Cruises, Spring Air, Sears, The World Gold Council, The Conference Board and American Express.

Her latest book, Let Them Eat Cake: Marketing Luxury to the Masses -- as well as the Classes, (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $27, hardcover) was published in January 2005. She also authored 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, 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 insight.