How to choose scents that sell

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We have a county/farm/rural vibe so I mostly use scents that are outdoorsy. I have a lot of floral, water, fruit, plant scents as opposed to food or perfumey scents to try. Lavender Vanilla, Honey & Patchouli, Blackberry & Magnolia, and Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey.
 
The eternal questions...

“Is your company rustic or refined? Do your products evoke crunchy hippies or sophisticated debutantes? Are they youthful and fun or elegant and refined? What image do you want to evoke when someone smells your product? A hand soap heavily laden with rose and lily is more likely to appeal to mature females than millennial males. Products heavy with oud, spices and resins are more likely to appeal to beard connoisseurs than to mommy bloggers. You should have a strong grasp on your brand identity long before you determine your product line and fragrance profiles.”

🤣🤣🤣
 
The eternal questions...

“Is your company rustic or refined? Do your products evoke crunchy hippies or sophisticated debutantes? Are they youthful and fun or elegant and refined? What image do you want to evoke when someone smells your product? A hand soap heavily laden with rose and lily is more likely to appeal to mature females than millennial males. Products heavy with oud, spices and resins are more likely to appeal to beard connoisseurs than to mommy bloggers. You should have a strong grasp on your brand identity long before you determine your product line and fragrance profiles.”

🤣🤣🤣
...or just buy and make some of everything and see what sells?
 
Interesting. How someone reacts to a smell can also be related to culture, memories (both positive and negative), familiarity but also aroma intensity. I personally would think you are better off covering a couple of bases on aroma types to see what sells e.g. woody, floral, fruity, sweet, etc. I love my spices and resins and am certainly not a beard connoisseur, lol. I was an Aromatherapy tutor and I used to get the class to smell different oils and discuss what they thought. It basically came down to 3 points of view, they loved it, they hated it, aroma was meh, take it or leave it. You can't even guarantee what they smell is the same as what you smell.

What image do you want to evoke when someone smells your product?" I'm not a friggin mind reader. How they react to that aroma is all them. I presume crunchy hippies would be going for patchouli, do sophisticated debutantes go for a "money" fragrance? I presume the whole idea of the article is to make you think, and it's certainly done that.
 
The dozens of people I’ve given soap to so far seem to be all over the place on fragrances. My BIL asked me to make him soap with a cologne-like scent, but not woodsy. When he came to visit recently, I had nine FO test soaps for him to pick from and also let him go through the soaps I made earlier this year. He selected soaps with ylang ylang and patchouli eos, orange, green tea, a branded beachy scent and a few others that leaned green or eo-floral, but only a couple of the soaps with the scents that I would call cologne-ish! I have a few friends who always ask for patchouli, lavender or citrus and others who ask if I have any pretty soaps with floral scents that would be good for their grandma, mom, daughter or niece. I recall some good threads on the forum in the past about having scents that cover the major scent categories, like floral, green, woodsy, etc.
 
I have been fortunate to live in an area with some large craft fairs. My retirement hobby of selling at fairs I have thought ideal in seeing what people like. I do what Alioop suggested; my tables have sections of fruity/bakery; florals and feminine, herbals, clean, earthy, "hippie". It is such a learning experience watching people's expressions when they pick up soap. I also find it interesting how fashion changes. Sweet scents used to be my biggest seller but today it is the clean or earthy woods/resins; not as much patchouli. However, a few great scents will be liked by all.
 
Ain't that the truth! Ask 20 people what their favorite fragrances are, they'll give you 32 answers.

The vast majority of my sales are from my website, and the buyers are from all over.

Ain't that the truth! My partner person... never ask him for a top 10 list of anything unless you're prepared for a list at least 30 entries long. And quite possibly an hour long (minimum) discussion for why these are all his top 10. Because so many things will tie for, say, position 5 but be more beloved than position 6. Or something to that effect. Still... it's fun to listen to him nerd out about the things he loves. Sometimes I poke that button just to listen to him and his passion. 😋

He has sat down, as an example, and put together a "top 10" movies list. It has over 300 entries (movies and all things movie-related is his largest hobby/interest).
 
I find it ironic that I live in a household where hubby has no sense of smell and neither does my daughter. The amount of times I ask them to smell something! When we first got together, he used to ask me to smell the milk. He’d made himself sick in the past with milk that had gone off. Also used to drive with the window in the car down, worried about petrol fumes. Maybe it’s a good thing I have an enhanced sense of smell 🤔
 
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