What’s the Psychology Behind Weird Scented Candles!

The purpose of lighting a scented candle, in my opinion, is to create an ambient space around your home. However, I wonder what is the psychology behind weird scented candles! I also wonder as to how many of us are actually drawn to or scented candles with weird names🤔.  You definitely don’t have to agree with me, but here is what I think about the appeal of weird candle scents.

The appeal of weird candle scents lies in their ability to pique peoples’ curiosity and interest! It’s the same psychology marketers use in advertising products in an already saturated marketplace: creating a unique, out of the ordinary, and even bizarre campaign for a product, to capture people’s attention. The ability of the marketers to create a memorable campaign for the product helps them place it at a unique position among the competition.  

How Candle Makers Name and Market their Products

Trying to market a new candle scent, as compared to other products, is tricky: the audience is unable to smell the candle scent and the candle makers and marketers have to rely on their own ability to create a mental picture, evoke a feeling of interest, desire, and fascination in order to motivate the consumers to buy it. If the scented candle target audience is able to imagine what that particular candle scent smells like, if they can relate with the feeling the candle maker is trying to evoke, they would end up having the desire to possess that candle scent. We buy scented candles because we want our living spaces to smell nice, and also, because we want to experience the promised feeling and recreate the ambience in our homes.  

That’s why many scented candles have creative names. They try to create desirable mental images:  Particular scent names and pictures specific to that scent improve buying intention.

But you must have observed that many scented can scented candles have mysterious and vague names. Furthermore, some weird scented candles have names that are downright bizarre, nonsensical even offensive to refined or conservative sensibilities.

Some scented candle companies have a fewer weird sounding candles to cater to the sensibilities of a particular niche in consumers. For instance, Yankee Candle has a masculine candle scent called Man Town, a sports theme centric First Down Candle, a beer smelling candle scent called On Tap, the fresh cut grass scented Riding Mower, the wood scented 2 X 4 candle. So, Yankee Candles’ weird candle scents are weird but wonderful at the same time.

Interesting Read: 11 Weird Candle Scents That Are Hard to Define

On the other hand, The Stinky Candle has dedicated itself entirely to a whole range of peculiar, but familiar, gourmand candle scents like Bacon Candle, French Fries Candle, etc. However, some candle scents are bizarre in terms of appeal: Chlorine Candle, Gasoline, Fart Candle, Dil Pickles Candle. Apparently, it’s the latter range of really weird candles that truly reflect the Stinky Candle company’s brand story and positioning.

Likewise, you are more likely to discover really weird candles on Etsy than on Amazon. I discovered gas station scented candles like Gas Station scented candle and Race Car Fuel scented candle, and more. Then there were more funny than weirdly named candles titled Chloroform candle, Ball Sweat, and more.   

One reason behind the appeal of weird scented candles lies in their associability potential to a certain personality type, i.e., people like it rough and tough, or dig things that remind them of the ordinariness of life.  The reason why certain people dig pungent, somewhat sweet, chemical odors is because they give the mind a temporary euphoric boost.  

Related and Interesting: Why Some People Love the Smell of Gasoline

To Sum Up

Our sense of smell is powerful and evocative. That’s why scented products like perfumes and scented candles employ the power of suggestion and imagination to capture the attention of their consumers.  There are scented candles that are pleasant, gorgeous, wonderful, mysterious and comforting. There are many of us who are drawn to weird candle scents because of their liking for unconventional scents. While the names of many of these candle scents would be funny, bizarre and even offensive, the scent can be familiar and pleasant.  

Let’s Talk!

Are there are any unusual or weird scented candles that you have tried? Did you like them? Let me know in the comments!   

 

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