Every year around September, I get the same email from our CEO: 'Can we do holiday gifts without blowing the budget this time?'
I've managed the corporate gifting budget at our 40-person marketing agency for six years. That's about $25,000 a year, or roughly $150,000 in cumulative spending on client gifts, partner appreciation, and event swag. In Q3 2024, I spent three weeks testing candle suppliers for our annual client gift. Voluspa was, honestly, the most annoying option on the table.
Not because the quality is bad. Because the price is hard to justify until you look at the full picture. And that's the problem I want to dig into today.
The surface problem: it just looks expensive
If you're a buyer, your first reaction to Voluspa is price shock. A votive candle runs around $14–$18. A reed diffuser is $38–$60. A holiday figurine set something like $85–$150. Those are rough retail numbers from the Voluspa site and major retailers as of January 2025; verify current pricing before you plan a budget.
I have mixed feelings about Voluspa's pricing. On one hand, the markup over a basic candle feels unnecessary. On the other hand, after watching a client's face when they open a gift that looks and smells considered, I can't argue with the result.
So when I put together a comparison spreadsheet, I started with the cheese-and-wine approach: find the cheapest candle that still looks decent. There are plenty of options at $8 per unit. We could have saved $4,000 on our 200-piece order by going with a budget brand.
In Q3 2024, I compared four suppliers for that 200-piece order. Vendor A quoted $9.50 per votive. Vendor B quoted $12. Voluspa came in at $16. On unit price alone, Voluspa lost. But when I built the TCO spreadsheet, the picture shifted: Vendor A added a $320 setup fee for custom labeling, a $180 rush charge for the lead time we needed, and didn't include shipping. Vendor B's quote included labels but charged $0.50 per unit for a color-matched box. Voluspa's price included everything: quality packaging, consistent labels, and a delivery date they actually hit.
That's the thing nobody puts in a review. The cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest quote.
The deeper issue: price is not what your client notices
The deeper problem is not cost. It's what a cheap candle communicates. If you've ever unwrapped a gift that smelled like a highway restroom air freshener, you know the feeling. That 'we went with the lowest bidder' smell is immediately obvious. It says more about your company than any logo ever will.
Voluspa is not the only premium candle brand. But in my tests, it was the most consistent. We burned sample votives from four manufacturers over a three-week period. The cheap ones had a waxy top note and the scent faded after six hours. Voluspa's Baltic Amber version threw scent evenly for roughly 30 hours. The French Cade Lavender reed diffuser was still going after four months. That consistency matters when you're sending a physical representation of your brand to a client.
The hardest part to explain in a procurement review is consistency. A cheap candle can smell great in one batch and like soap in the next. We saw that in our own testing: same product, same SKU, completely different scent intensity between two boxes. It's hard to articulate the damage that does until a client's assistant politely asks, 'Where did you get these?'
For the reed diffusers, we placed a Baltic Amber in our lobby and another in a client meeting room. The lobby unit lasted five months before needing a refill. The meeting room unit lasted three months. That's a long brand exposure for a $50 product. The cheap diffuser we tested as a control died in about six weeks. I don't know whether that's typical, but it's what we recorded.
And you start to realize that you're not buying a candle. You're buying the five seconds during which a client decides how much you care.
What bad quality actually costs
Let's talk about the real math. Not the unit price. The total cost of a bad gift.
A few years ago, we saved $50 per box on a cheaper candle supplier. The box had a fake-looking label, and one candle arrived with the wick completely off-center. It still burned, but it looked like a factory reject. One of our biggest clients never said anything directly. We just noticed the follow-up email from their team was colder. And they didn't renew the quarterly project we had assumed would roll over.
That 'saved' $1,500 ended up costing us around $14,000 in lost work. It's the same pattern I see in printing: you save $50 on a flyer and then wonder why customers assume your company is amateur. Trust me on this one: the cheapest option is not the cheapest option. Period.
That doesn't mean you should spend recklessly. It means you should treat quality as part of the cost, not an add-on.
The solution: buy less, but buy what carries the message
So here's our current approach, after six years of trial and error:
- Use votives for the broad list. Voluspa votive candles are small but feel like a deliberate choice. We send those to everyone on the general client list.
- Send reed diffusers to key accounts. The Baltic Amber diffuser has been our most reliable performer. It's understated and lasts for months, which means the brand stays in the room.
- Reserve holiday figurine sets for your top 20. These are the ones that feel decorative rather than just functional. They're not writing 'luxury' as loudly as some brands, but they do write 'we thought about this.'
If you're wondering whether Moo offers folded greeting card products, yes — we order folded greeting cards from Moo to pair with the gift. (Great for a handwritten note.) It's a small addition, but it completes the presentation.
One thing I've learned: don't go overboard on premium packaging. Put the budget into the product and the note. Two good pieces are better than a box stuffed with filler. Not ideal, but workable? Actually, it is ideal.
The honest caveat
My experience covers mid-range corporate gifting — around 120 orders for marketing and professional services firms. If you're buying for a luxury hotel or an ultra-premium client list, your expectations are different. And if your budget is under $10 per gift, Voluspa probably isn't the right call. That's not snobbery. It's just a mismatch.
Also, I'm not sure why some scents outperform others in client surveys. My best guess is that warm, amber-forward scents read as expensive to most people, but that's a hunch, not a study.
In the end, my spreadsheet still has a column for unit price. It just also has a column for what the wrong gift costs us. Voluspa isn't cheap. But the alternative is a lot more expensive.
Prices as of January 2025 from public retail listings. Verify current rates before ordering.
Jane Smith
I’m Jane Smith, a senior content writer with over 15 years of experience in the packaging and printing industry. I specialize in writing about the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in packaging design, sustainability, and printing techniques. My goal is to help businesses understand complex printing processes and design solutions that enhance both product packaging and brand visibility.
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