Are you looking for the most viable target market for candles? If YES, here are the most viable target markets for candles.
Candlemakers are blessed with the platform to bring their ideas to life, leveraging their creativity to come up with unique and exciting ideas that others will love to have in their homes. This business can be started on a small scale right from the comfort of your home, saving you money on expenses like rent and allowing you to grow the business gradually.
This business can be started and run in various ways. A good number of operations are managed out of a home kitchen, with owners sampling and selling products at a booth at craft shows and flea markets.
Some also open storefronts or shops, sell through boutiques and gift shops or, even sell online through their website or Etsy. There are numerous and viable business models in this industry, which entails that business owners can decide to run their businesses in the ways that best suit their lifestyle and business aims.
According to experts, candle-making businesses will develop different target markets depending on their business intentions and concepts. A business concentrating on premium candles might choose to market to gift-givers and homeowners who want an elegant candle to elevate a home space.
Businesses who make candles designed to buttress the scents and scenes of a specific location will market to tourists and homeowners in that same location.
However, according to industry experts, the prime target market for candles is women with families. Since being one of life’s little luxuries, candles are acquired at almost the same rate across all income levels, among all ethnicities, and at all educational levels.
Don’t also forget that men love candles as much as women, however, key demographic factors note that women buy more, especially those aged 45 years and under.
In the industry, there are also a growing number of different cultural couples and families buying candles. This simply proves that baby boomers are creating a predictable pattern of home and family spending, and these lifestyle changes can only entail increased growth in the candle industry.
Various Target Markets for Candles
Note that the first step in building your candle business is deciding where your business fits in the broader candle marketplace. Your target markets are the buyers who you believe should be most interested in your products and are most likely to become customers. In the candle industry, target markets are well separated into three categories:
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High-end or Prestige Category
Luxury candles are a new and massively growing segment of the candle market. A luxury candle can be made from various types of waxes such as vegetable waxes, soy, coconut wax, and beeswax. Luxury candle is available in two main types, i.e. regular and scented.
Note that all scented candles have some type of fragrance, whether it is manufactured fragrance oil, essential oil, or a combination thereof. However, luxury candle makers are known to seek out and use some of the most expensive, high-quality oils available.
Have it in mind you won’t often see scents such as ‘cotton candy’ or ‘chocolate chip cookies in a luxury candle, although there are some notable exceptions. Some of the fragrances are very complicated with mystic scent names, such as Fornasetti’s Otto or Michael Aram’s Butterfly Gingko.
Also, note that pricing may vary. The average prestige candle can sell for about$30 to $80 and can run as high as $185 like the Louis Vuitton perfumed scented candle. Prestige candles are known for their premium packaging, fragrances, and emphasis on brand storytelling.
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Mid-market Category
These mid-tier candles have broad appeal and they can be quite tricky to market. Owing to the various demographics in this market, what works well for one candle business may not necessarily be successful for another.
Candle businesses that target this market are at the sweet spot in their growth where autonomy meets accountability. Note that you will likely find these candles in retail outlets like Target. They tend to have unique scenes like rose water, grapefruit, or basil and cost around $10 per candle.
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Mass market Category
These candles are the most affordable in the market and a good number of new entrants into this industry start off targeting this market.
It’s not difficult to make candles in your kitchen, as the many sellers on Etsy can attest to. In addition, some stores sell candle-making supplies and essential oils in abundance, making the mass market category of the industry the most intense and competitive.
However, with growing competition in this category comes the need to innovate and grow business offerings, and for these businesses to expand beyond farmer’s markets and small gift shops, they need a more sophisticated sense of design and a certain amount of internet savviness.
In the business of candles, you should consider who will buy your candles, how they will buy your candles, and how much they are willing to pay.
This is the only way to have a better idea of what materials to use and how to design your packaging and brand. It is ideal to begin with a target in mind, but be willing to improvise and adapt over time. Most successful businesses steadily adjust to better suit their market.