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Yankee Candle is going luxury with a new line of candles that’s designed to be upsold. The Massachusetts-based candle company launched the Yankee Candle YC Collection this week, a line of seven fragrances designed by Beardwood&Co., the New York City branding agency behind the July redesign of the company’s packaging. [Photo: Yankee Candle] With a curved glass jar, white wax, and metallic lids that show a new “YC” monogram adapted from the original Yankee Candle logo, the candles are minimally designed. Each box comes with watercolor artwork by illustrator Carly Martin that’s inspired by the look of an artist’s fragrance sketchbook, according to the company. The new premium line sells for $45 for a 12 oz. candle and $32 for a 7 oz. Compare that to $20.99 the brand charges now charges for candles between 20 oz. and 22 oz. [Photo: Yankee Candle] “Launching a new premium collection allows Yankee Candle to answer a desire for how a new generation of fragrance lovers combines scent and home decor to express themselves,” Beardwood&Co. co-CEO Sarah Williams tells Fast Company. “Ensuring this new line felt luxurious and display-worthy was the real benchmark for launch.” The YC Collection include the peach-scented Nectar and Amber, which mixes tobacco leaf with honeyed cacao and amber woods. Online, each candle also names the perfumer who crafted the scent, giving the line some artisan attribution that helps elevate its perceived craftsmanship. “We worked with expert perfumers trained in the tradition of fine fragrance to craft a collection that feels as intentional and curated as the poems it lives in,” Aaron Swart, the general manager of home fragrance for Yankee Candle’s parent company Newell Brands, said in a statement. [Photo: Yankee Candle] Together, that means Yankee Candle can charge more. The new line comes as Newell Brands, which also owns brands like Sharpie and Expo, looks to improve Yankee Candle sales as lower-income and younger consumers pull back and the company’s overall net sales fell 7.2% year over year. Already, it’s tweaked the look of its candles. It’s new candle packaging rolled out this summer uses bigger images, plus the claim “room-filling fragrances” and “Est. 1969” above the logo. Beardwood&Co. says the new design has increased intent to purchase compared to the old design, and now the new candles were designed to reach new consumers. The luxury candle market is growing and the top 10% of earners make up a growing share of consumer spending, so they’re going after consumers willing to pay a bit more. [Photo: Yankee Candle] While this premium line is offered at a higher price point for Yankee Candle, it’s still more candle for your buck than Diptyque Paris, which sells 2.5 oz. candles for $48, and cheaper still than Le Labo candles, which can cost as much as $90. That gives Yankee Candle a more moderately priced premium product at a time when inflation remains persistent, so higher-income consumers can trade down for a candle that still looks high-end while other consumers can splurge on a budget. As Yankee Candle looks to grow its sales, the YC Collection could boost its higher-margin sales and help the brand endear itself to younger consumers and luxury candle fans.
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E-Commerce
A haunting 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Thursday for $54.7 million and became the top-selling work by any female artist at an auction. The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed titled El sueo (La cama) or in English, The Dream (The Bed) surpassed the record held by Georgia OKeeffes Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1,” which sold for $44.4 million in 2014. The sale at Sotheby’s in New York also topped Kahlo’s own auction record for a work by a Latin American artist. The 1949 painting Diego and I, depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, went for $34.9 million in 2021. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more. The self-portrait is among the few Kahlo pieces that have remained in private hands outside Mexico, where her body of work has been declared an artistic monument. Her works in both public and private collections within the country cannot be sold abroad or destroyed. The painting comes from a private collection, whose owner has not been disclosed, and is legally eligible for international sale. Some art historians have scrutinized the sale for cultural reasons, while others have raised concern that the painting last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s could again disappear from public view after the auction. It has already been requested for upcoming exhibitions in cities including New York, London and Brussels. The buyer’s identity was not disclosed. The piece depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden, colonial-style bed that floats in the clouds. She is draped in a golden blanket and entangled in crawling vines and leaves. Above the bed lies a skeleton figure wrapped in dynamite. Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at 18. She started to paint while bedridden, underwent a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, then wore casts until her death in 1954 at age 47. During the years Kahlo was confined to her bed, she came to view it as a bridge between worlds as she explored her mortality. Before the auction, her great-niece, Mara Romeo Kahlo, celebrated the significance of the upcoming sale during a recent interview with The Associated Press in Mexico City. I’m very proud that she’s one of the most valued women, because really, what woman doesn’t identify with Frida, or what person doesn’t?” she said. “I think everyone carries a little piece of my aunt in their heart. The painting was the star of a sale of more than 100 surrealist works by artists including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning. Kahlo resisted being labeled a surrealist, a style of art that’s dreamlike and centers on a fascination with the unconscious mind. I never painted dreams, she once said. I painted my own reality. In its catalog note, Sothebys said the painting offers a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death. The suspended skeleton is often interpreted as a visualization of her anxiety about dying in her sleep, a fear all too plausible for an artist whose daily existence was shaped by chronic pain and past trauma, the catalog notes. Earlier this week, a Gustav Klimt painting that helped save the life of its Jewish subject during the Holocaust sold at Sotheby’s for $236.4 million. Klimts Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer became one of the most expensive pieces of artwork ever sold at auction, second only to Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi at $450 million the record-holder over all and among male artists. Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press Associated Press video journalists Martín Silva Rey in Mexico City and Cassandra Allwood in London contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
Google Maps is one of the most valuable digital marketing tools available to your business, particularly if you’re using the Google Local Pack. The Google Local Pack displays top-ranked business listings in a users local area. So, when searching for hairstylists near me or Italian food in my area, a user sees their local best-ranked and reviewed listings for salons or Italian restaurants at the very top of the search results page, along with a map. These listings occupy a valuable space on the search results page, as the first items many users see and appear higher than traditional results. In fact, many users will click on one of those listings without scrolling down to view other results. Additionally, these listings provide a wealth of useful information, including contact details, business hours, address, website link, photos, and customer reviews. It even shows the business’s busiest time of day. Appearing in the Google Local Pack for your area’s relevant keywords makes it easier for potential customers to find your website and physical location. Its an extremely effective way to get ahead of your local competition. So, how do you rank high in the Google Local Pack? Local SEO strategies influence rankings. Youre likely already doing some things right, but to boost your ranking, ensure youve checked every box and adjust your strategy as needed. Here are the four steps to improve your Google Local Pack ranking. 1. Optimize your Google Business Profile Much of the data Google uses to populate your listing in the Local Pack comes from your Google Business Profile. If you havent already set one up, nows the time to do so as fully as possiblethen keep it up to date. The information provided should match information you have elsewhere on the internet, especially on your website. Double-check to ensure accuracy and consistency of critical details, such as your business name, address, phone number, and website. Think about your listing like a customers first impression. A good impression provides everything they might want to know, so your Google Local Pack listing will include all of the following: Name Website link Phone number Address Photos Hours and dates open/closed, along with popular times to visit Description Service options, such as a menu for restaurants Pricing information Tag, which indicates the type of business Reviews from users, along with a star rating The more information a listing has, the easier it is for a customer to get their questions answeredand you want to make things easy for your customers. So, if you have this completed, youre already doing better than many businesses. However, you can take your Google Local Pack ranking further with a few additional steps. 2. Become a review master Reviews significantly influence a potential customer’s initial impression of your business when they view your listing. Your star ratingbased on your reviewswill be one of the first things a customer sees. Your rating directly affects your SEO and search result ranking, and its what many users base their business decisions on. Many businesses believe they cant control reviews. However, you can encourage people to give you reviews and respond to the reviews you receive, both positive and negative. 3. Create a strong local online association To rank well in local search results, Google requires a strong association between your business and your local area. Start by embedding your Google Maps location on your website. This simple step goes a long way. Local data for your social media accounts helps reinforce that association. Next, optimize your web pages for local keywords. If you have multiple business locations, create individual pages for each location that are entirely unique and optimized for local keywords. 4. Reach out to your local community After completing the first three steps, continue building your local SEO to improve your Google Local Pack ranking, by interacting with your local community: Write for local publications or publish information about local topics and events. Get involved in community events. Engage in discussions on social media. Attend or even host events. Building relationships with other local businesses and individuals increases your chances of earning backlinks, which takes a significant amount of effort but can create great SEO results. The big picture Google Local Pack enables you to connect with your community and differentiate yourself in a crowded digital landscape. Take advantage of optimizing your Google Business Profile, master your client reviews, strengthen your local online presence, and engage authentically with your community. These steps build trust and visibility that drive real results. Maximize the opportunity to make your business the first choice for local customers. Jason Hennessey is the CEO and founder of Hennessey Digital.
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E-Commerce
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