No one likes to smell and banking on this one particular American insecurity has really raked in the benefits for companies who make air freshening products. The air freshener industry has been up $600 million since 2003 and analysts project sales for 2007 to be around $1.72 billion.
Though most would consider items such as Febreze or Glade scented candles to be luxury items that are not really necessary for subsistence, many consumers have taken on to these items as though they were a part of the bare necessities much like toilet paper or water.
Even young people such as teens and up through to college students, who may not necessarily own a home, want air freshening products for bedrooms, dorm rooms, cars or clothes. The list of uses can go on and on.
Febreze, the spray freshener for everything from bed linens to carpets, has actually been marketed towards the younger consumer. There are even Febreze players and scented dics that, instead of playing music, emit an air freshening scent. The players cost $24.99 and the discs are $5.99 each.
Another product, the Glade Light Show (made by SC Johnson), is also catered toward children and teens. Sold for about $11.99, the product is not only a plug in air freshener, but night light/entertainment. Is it necessary? Definitely not, but people are willing to spend $12 of their hard-earned money because it is the little extras that people will spend on for themselves that is the going trend today.
While most Americans who buy air freshening products would agree they do not necessarily need to have these products, the growth of the industry is proof of the growing disposable incomes of American adults and teenagers.
In 2006 alone, more than 1,000 fresheners were on the market and 40 percent of people who purchase air freshening products, only started buying these products in the last six years.
So, why the sudden popularity in these air fresheners? There doesn’t really seem to be any environmental change that occurred in the last six years to make people need these items. It was mostly due in large part to keen marketing and an increasing desire for cleanliness and freshness.
While none of these products actually cleans anything, they emit a scent that gives off the idea that the house, the clothes or whatever was just sprayed is clean and knew.
People are being sold the idea that it is not enough to open up a few windows in the house to let in some fresh air. Instead, they have to plug or spray something in that has a near perfume-like quality in order to be considered “clean.” The power of marketing never ceases to amaze.
