how to start a luxury candle company 3.
In my last post (how to start a luxury candle company 2) I discussed how important it is to have a brand story aka, a hook, inspiration, something to base your line/brand on that will inform everything you do in terms of design, fragrance naming, packaging, marketing, advertising etc. now and in the future. You might think this is obvious, but you’d be surprised how many clients I have had meetings with that have no idea what I’m talking about. They have a seedling of an idea, they figure they will slap a logo on it and they will do social media and become very very rich. Listen, this is one way of doing things, and for some businesses, or products, this might do the trick, but if we are talking about beautiful home fragrance products, products that make our lives more luxurious and special, this is probably not isn't going to cut it. By the way, there are a ton of private label candle pouring companies that can do this for you. They will ask you to choose your vessel from their assortment (these will be based on what we are already seeing in the market), they will ask you to choose your label style (from an assortment that they will curate for you - or they will let you use your labels in some cases) and then your outer packaging (usually a few box styles to choose from) and they will ask for your logo (if you have one) and they will put it all together for you.
For the love of all things scented, HOW WILL YOU STAND OUT? *
In my opinion, especially if your plan is to work with a graphic designer/packaging designer, this is one of your most important steps. If you don’t have anything to base your line on and you are still wondering if creating one is worth it, let me tell you a little story.
A while back an expert fragrance specialist came to me with a client who wanted to start a new candle line, the expert would design the fragrances and, would I be interested in doing the packaging design? I asked them for the creative brief - where are my guidelines on this new brand? tell me more, I’m interested. The fragrance specialist told me that essentially they had nothing. They had been trying for months to actually help the client figure out what the line would be based on, get a feel for what the client likes, what they are passionate about, something, anything… but really, they weren’t getting very far, except for not being paid to spend a lot of time with the hope of this paying off at some point and the excitement of creating something wonderful.
Given that I don’t have much extra time to kick around, but loving nothing more than a new challenge, I figured I would take a stab at getting the right information from the client to really start this ball rolling.
And…nothing.
The client is a lovely person, a smart person, but there was literally nothing to grab onto and run with. The fragrance specialist tried to show the client how to create mood boards, even helped make some, but again, all we got was images of pretty candles that we both already knew by established brands. Nothing new. (If I had a dollar for every time a client told me that they wanted a Le Labo style label, I could have retired in 2020).
Essentially we went in circles, the fragrance specialist hoped to get a creative brief from me, - Nadine, just throw a few things together and see if anything sparks the fire! and I was hoping to get a creative brief from them, - Give me some great fragrance descriptions and I will get you something to look at! We went in circles! CIRCLES.
After several months of these circles, I was asked for a price quote for all the work that it would take to create this line. Logo, packaging, olfactory profiles, website, the works. We could have just thrown some numbers around, but because the fragrance specialist and I really wanted to create something amazing for the client and we are both ridiculous perfectionists, we finally decided to actually write a creative brief ourselves and present it. We created a fictional character, very loosely based on the client. Someone young and beautiful who enjoyed the finer things in life, a jet setter, who could go on adventures around the world and get into exciting situations (we could use these stories for marketing), someone who could dress up in couture and attend the fanciest event or chill out on a yacht in the Med. We were getting excited. Why? Because we felt like the story we came up with would give us real material to work with. This story gave the fragrance specialist so many ways to come up with different olfactive profiles and collections, think about it, couture, the Mediterranean Sea, a private jet. Plus, it sparked lots of design ideas for me to work with.
Well, in the end, this project didn’t happen, but it’s a great example of what happens when there is no story, no hook, no point of view, no creative brief. Nothing happens. Or, if it does, you end up with another variation of what’s already out there, and nobody needs that.
If you are slightly freaking out about how a fragrance specialist would use words and adventures to come up with candle and home fragrance scents, trust me, it is an absolute ART and these experts are incredible. And if you are mixing a few fragrances together in your kitchen and thinking damn… I need a fragrance expert on my team, hit me up, I can connect you ;-)
Now go write that story.
*I am adding an asterisk here because for some companies/brands, the private label buffet-style candle manufacturing/design services are exactly what they need and it works very well for their purposes (mostly for brands who are NOT candle companies, like a clothing or home store that wants to sell a custom candle line as an add-on and wants to brand their own store name rather than a candle brand name or for seasonal gifts for corporate gifts), in these cases I think this is a great option. For the purposes of this series, the aim is to give you tools that you can use to stand out, be original, find your own voice and run with it!
