Incense in The Wind: India luxury box incense

Tuesday 31 October 2023

India luxury box incense

I have become increasing aware of Indian incense being sold in large oblong luxury boxes at a premium price. I'm not sure exactly when this started (it wasn't the case when I was buying incense in the Seventies), but it appears to me that more and more incense houses are getting into this market. Most Indian incense is sold very cheap, and companies chase each other for market share. The companies which are successful in the budget everyday perfumed incense market are those, like Mangaldeep and Zed Black, who are able to make (or commission) incense on a massive industrial scale, and have the distribution and marketing power to place their products in multiple outlets. Zed Black makes over 35 million incense sticks every day. As the everyday perfumed incense is sold at very competitively cheap rates, with very small profit margins, to really succeed you need the economies of scale that the owners of the Mangaldeep and Zed Black brands have. Another way of making a profit is to go down the premium product route. You sell less, but at a higher profit margin. And that seems to be a direction that a number of companies, especially the medium sized companies, are following. The problem with the premium product angle is that unlike the budget market where the purchase incentive is in the low price, which is clear and obvious to see, the premium products are harder to sell when they are unknown, because there is no clear reason to pay the extra. Incense houses, and resellers, are very much relying on creating a reputation for their product being good before people are willing to part with a higher price. At a glance it appears to me that the companies which are becoming successful in this premium market are those who are already established, like Balaji and BIC and Koya's. While companies which don't have an existing reputation, like EL Incenses & Fragrances (now closed it seems), struggle.

I'm going to keep a track here of incenses from India which are in large, quality packaging, and are sold at a premium price. See which companies are doing it, the sorts of prices they are charging, and what kind of incense is in the packets. My impression so far is that the incense is mostly oil rich masala style - a more expensive version of Sai Flora Fluxo and clones; though there are some, such as Om Brand Vedamrut Lavender Premium Incense, which are perfumed charcoal (though there is some dispute about if that Vedamrut Premium is a perfumed charcoal stick, or if the sticks were swapped for cheaper ones).