01
Acquisition and gifting
Meta and Google built around self purchase and gifting, gift guide and press placements, and creative that sells scent through a screen.
Fractional CMO for candle and home fragrance brands
Marketing leadership for candle and home fragrance brands that want growth past the holidays.
I'm Monica Hacker, a fractional CMO for candle and home fragrance brands. At the luxury candle brand Luce Divina, online orders grew 8.8x. Paid, gifting, retention and the AI system that runs it, with one senior person accountable for the number.
Part of my CPG work. Based in New York and Miami.
8.8xonline orders at Luce Divina, vs. the four months before
7.2xecommerce revenue at Luce Divina
$10M+in ad spend managed
6.2xreturn on ad spend
“She came in and very quickly saw things we were too close to see ourselves. She brought a clear growth strategy, and she actually took ownership of executing it.”
Luce DivinaThe pattern
Most candle brands make half their year in eight weeks.
The pattern is familiar. A beautiful product, a strong gifting season, and a long quiet stretch from January to September. Ads chase holiday demand at the most expensive time of year. Customers buy once as a gift and don't hear from the brand again until next December.
So I start with the whole year. Who buys for themselves and who buys as a gift, how fast a candle burns down, what a repeat customer is worth, and where AI search and gift guides send shoppers. Then the plan, in priority order.
What I run
How an engagement usually works.
02
Replenishment and retention
Email and SMS timed to burn time, scent launches and bundles that bring buyers back, and a plan for the months after the holidays.
03
Discovery in AI search
Product pages and content that get your brand named when shoppers ask ChatGPT for a candle or a gift.
Who this is for
Who I tend to work best with.
A candle or home fragrance brand selling online, often with wholesale or retail too, already spending on growth and leaning too hard on Q4.
This sits inside my CPG work. Selling mostly online? See fractional CMO for DTC and ecommerce brands.
Where to start
Start with a CPG & Ecommerce Growth Audit.
A prioritized read on acquisition, seasonality, retention and discovery, delivered in 5 days.
What I look at first
- Acquisition: what each channel brings in and what it costs
- Seasonality: how much of your year rides on Q4
- Retention: repeat rate, burn time and replenishment
- Discovery: whether Google and AI answers recommend you
- The verdict: where growth is leaking and what to fix first
Starting at $1,500
Delivered in 5 days
What does a fractional CMO do for a candle brand?
Owns growth end to end: paid and gifting, retention timed to burn time, scent launches, AI search visibility, and reporting on what a customer is actually worth.
How much does a fractional CMO cost for a candle brand?
From $8,500 a month, 4 month minimum, review at month 3. Paid acquisition on its own from $4,500 a month. A Growth Audit is $1,500, and it's how most engagements kick off.
How do you grow a candle brand outside the holidays?
Self purchase audiences, replenishment timed to burn time, seasonal scent launches and bundles. The goal is a second order before the next gifting season.
What did you do for Luce Divina?
I run growth as their fractional CMO: Meta campaigns, press events, PR and the ecommerce funnel. Online orders grew 8.8x and ecommerce revenue grew 7.2x compared with the four months before.
What I do
Four ways to work with me.
Let's grow the other ten months.
I take on a few new clients each quarter. If your brand is ready to grow, let's talk.
Book a call →Thirty minutes. Bring your numbers, or just bring the problem. You'll leave knowing what I'd fix first.
