Market for Home Fragrances Booms in 2004, Reports Unity Marketing; Eighty Percent of Americans Buy Products to Make Their Homes Smell Good.

STEVENS, Pa. -- The market for home fragrance products, including candles and candle accessories, sprays, plugs-ins, room fresheners, potpourris, air fresheners, air purifiers 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 so that 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 entire homes to be nicely fragranced everyday. Thus buying and using home fragrance products which used to be an occasional 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 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 and discounters, like Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart, the 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.

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.