What Is American Home By Yankee Candle?
Yankee Candle is an iconic candle brand founded in 1969 in Massachusetts by Michael Kittredge. Originally started as a high school project, Kittredge began making candles with melted crayons and sold them to neighbors. The handmade candles quickly gained popularity for their great scent and long burn times.
By 1973, the business had grown into a full company called New England Country Candles. Yankee Candle focused on creating candles using innovative materials and production methods to make them more fragrant and last longer. The brand became known for its distinctive fragrance forms and large jar candles.
Over the next few decades, Yankee Candle experienced tremendous growth and became the market leader in scented candles in America. The company perfected the art of candle making and offered customers an unparalleled sensory experience with high-quality ingredients and proprietary fragrance formulations.
Launch of American Home
American Home was launched by Yankee Candle in 2010 as a new premium home fragrance brand. It debuted at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago that year. The new brand was envisioned by Yankee Candle founder Michael Kittredge as a way to expand the company’s offerings into more high-end and sophisticated home fragrance products.
At the time of its launch, American Home was positioned as a sister brand to Yankee Candle, offering complementary fragrances and products that would appeal to luxury home decor customers. The branding and packaging was designed to have an upscale look and feel compared to Yankee Candle’s more mass-market products. The launch included over 80 products across candles, diffusers, oils, and other home fragrance formats.
The creation of American Home allowed Yankee Candle to expand into more exclusive distribution channels such as high-end department stores and specialty home retailers. It gave the company a brand that could credibly compete in the premium home fragrance market against other upscale brands. The launch was seen as fulfilling founder Michael Kittredge’s vision to create artisanal, hand-crafted products made in America.
Product Lines
American Home offers an extensive range of home fragrance products across several product lines. The brand’s signature product is their wide selection of candles available in various sizes, shapes, and scents. They offer traditional jars and pillars as well as more unique candle forms like bubbles, vases, and tumblers. American Home also produces wax melts and warming trays that slowly diffuse a room with fragrance. For quick fragrance boosts, they have room sprays in refreshing scents. Beyond candles and home fragrances, American Home has a line of fragrance accessories like reed diffusers and fragrance spheres. They also sell decorative items like candle holders, blankets, and baskets that complement their home fragrance products. With their range of candles, melts, diffusers, sprays, and more, American Home aims to provide options for fragrance lovers seeking new ways to scent their living spaces.
Signature Scents
Yankee Candle’s most popular and beloved fragrances have become signature scents that customers turn to again and again. These fragrances evoke classic New England imagery and experiences that resonate with many Yankee Candle fans.
One of their most iconic scents is Beach Walk, launched in 2008. This refreshing fragrance captures the essence of a windswept day at the beach, with notes of creamy vanilla, coconut, and musk. It quickly became a top-selling scent and remains a perennial customer favorite over a decade later.
Another famous scent is Lemon Lavender, which blends bright citrus with floral and herbaceous notes. This vibrant, uplifting fragrance has been produced for over 20 years and continues to be one of Yankee Candle’s most popular fragrances. It’s a quintessential summer scent that’s clean, fresh, and relaxing.
These signature scents and others like them have come to define the Yankee Candle brand. Customers eagerly await new renditions and packaging of these iconic fragrances each year. They spark nostalgia and bring back cherished memories for many candle lovers.
Home Fragrance Innovation
American Home by Yankee Candle played a pioneering role in home fragrance, much like the auto air freshener market. Prior to American Home, most candles were basic tapers and pillars made from paraffin wax. American Home introduced more innovative products like scented votive candles, scented jar candles, and fragranced wax melts. They took inspiration from the perfume industry to create signature scents that evoked specific moods, memories, and emotions. Their focus on fragrance innovation made candles an aesthetic experience rather than just a functional light source.
One key innovation was the scented jar candle. By filling wide-mouth jars with scented wax, American Home allowed the fragrance to waft through a room when lit. But the jars also became decorative when not burned, letting consumers enjoy the look and scent. American Home further expanded the scented candle market with new forms like votives, pillars, and filled containers. Their innovative products made candles a customizable part of home decor.
American Home also pioneered wax melts as an alternative to scented candles. Wax melts are unscented wax cubes that are warmed to release fragrance. Consumers could mix and match fragrances without the cost of buying new candles. Wax melts were also safer than leaving candles burning. American Home’s innovations made home fragrance accessible, affordable, and customizable for consumers.
Branding & Marketing
American Home sought to stand out in the home fragrance market through sophisticated branding and packaging that felt elevated yet approachable. The products feature clean, minimalist labeling with modern typography and images of home decor. The candles come in chic glass jars or decorative tins with matte finishes and neutral color palettes inspired by the scents themselves. This polished aesthetic helps convey the brand’s identity as high-quality and refined.
In terms of marketing, American Home has focused on promoting the lifestyle and ambiance associated with its products. Advertisements highlight the scents being used in cozy home settings and tie into the emotions of relaxation, comfort and nostalgia. Social media reinforces these themes while also engaging followers with home decor inspiration and entertaining tips. Through its branding and marketing, American Home aims to be more than just another candle company – it aspires to provide customers with an immersive, sensory experience and a way to create their ideal home environment.
Manufacturing & Distribution
American Home products are manufactured at the primary Yankee Candle factory in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. This facility has been the flagship manufacturing home for Yankee Candle since the company’s founding in 1969.
The South Deerfield plant spans over 1 million square feet and has the capacity to produce around 50,000 candles per day. It utilizes both modern candle making technology and equipment as well as some original equipment from when the company started. The facility employs over 1,000 workers who handcraft candles onsite.
In addition to the main South Deerfield location, Yankee Candle operates a second manufacturing facility in Whately, MA focused on personal care products. The company also has a distribution center located in Deerfield, MA.
Yankee Candle has a network of thousands of retail stores that distribute and sell the brand’s products worldwide. This includes stand-alone Yankee Candle retail stores, mall kiosks, department store displays, and partnerships with other retailers.
The company also does direct-to-consumer sales online via its website, phone orders, and mail order catalogs. This allows Yankee Candle products to be shipped anywhere across the United States and internationally.
Reviews
American Home candles and home fragrances have received overwhelmingly positive reviews from experts and customers alike. Many reviewers praise the true-to-life scents, excellent burn quality, and beautiful packaging of the candles. Here are some highlights of American Home reviews:
Experts at popular home sites like Apartment Therapy and Good Housekeeping have given glowing reviews of American Home candles. They compliment how the fragrances are well-balanced and reminiscent of the real things like baked treats, flowers, and fruits. Reviewers also say the candles have excellent wax quality and burn evenly down to the bottom without issues like tunneling.
On consumer sites like Influenster and Amazon, American Home earns very high ratings across all of its product lines. Customers love the long-lasting scents and how they make their homes smell wonderful. Many reviewers say the candles are as good or better than more expensive brands. The beautiful jar designs and attention to detail also receive praise.
The wick quality and lack of residue left behind after burning are other common compliments from customer reviews. There are very few negative reviews, mainly involving fragrances not appealing to personal preference. But the overall sentiment is that American Home offers excellent quality candles and home scents at affordable prices.
Impact & Legacy
American Home by Yankee Candle has had a significant impact on the home fragrance industry since its launch in 2010. As an established leader in scented candles, Yankee Candle was able to leverage its expertise in fragrance technology and manufacturing to create a line of products that raised the bar for home scents.
One of the major impacts of American Home was bringing high-quality, sophisticated home fragrance products to the mass retail market. Prior to this, shoppers would have to go to specialty home stores, boutiques or department stores to find home scents beyond basic candles or air fresheners. By making stylish electric home fragrancers, essential oil diffusers, room sprays and other products available at mass retailers, American Home made designer home scents more accessible to the average consumer.
The brand also pioneered new home fragrance formats like the ceramic disk diffuser, which allowed Yankee Candle to offer long-lasting fragrances in new ways. The success of American Home’s innovations drove further innovation across the home fragrance category as competitors worked to match the performance and sophistication of Yankee’s products.
In addition to innovation, American Home also had a major impact through its branding, marketing and merchandising. The brand brought an upscale, aspirational sensibility to the mass retail shopping experience. From its sleek, stylish packaging to in-store displays with a boutique aesthetic, American Home set a new standard for making home fragrance shopping engaging, fun and visually appealing for customers.
Over a decade after its launch, American Home continues to be an important brand and innovation driver within Yankee Candle Company. It remains a leader in home fragrance, trusted by millions of customers to enhance their homes with meaningful scents and provide exceptional fragrance experiences.
The Future
So what does the future hold for American Home by Yankee Candle? The brand shows no signs of slowing down and continues to innovate within the home fragrance market. With its wide range of signature scents and seasonal offerings, Yankee Candle will likely continue releasing new collections regularly. The brand is also expected to keep up with home decor trends by introducing stylish new products like diffusers, candles, and reed diffusers.
There are also opportunities for American Home by Yankee Candle to expand internationally. While a mainstay in North America, the brand can grow its presence in Europe, Asia, and other markets. Ecommerce and online sales are another growth area, making the candles and fragrances accessible to more consumers worldwide. Overall, the future looks bright for this trusted home fragrance brand as it leverages its legacy while appealing to changing consumer tastes and trends. The focus remains on quality, innovation, and providing delightful scented experiences for every home.
