March 8, 2007
The Scent of a Cool, Young New Yorker
The NY Times article about Calvin Klein's perfume division's attempts to gain market share from twenty-somethings with a new perfume made us wonder many things. For starters, why did Calvin Klein Inc. (actual Calvin Klein the human is not involved) allow its marketing and positioning strategy to be exposed to so much ridicule?
The new fragrance, the "millennial" version of ckOne, is called CK in2u, which has its own online community website. THis would probably be acceptable if it were from Prince, but the shorthand is pretty dumb and something few 20-somethings would want to buy. Then again, maybe it's to prepare us for the inevitable follow-ups, CK LOL, CK ROFL, and CK ;).
Another question: Who decided this was the product for 20-somethings? Two people in CK's "technosexual" (don't ask) demographic are Zach Klein of College Humor, Vimeo, and other ventures and photoblogger Youngna Park, who also writes for Gothamist. From the Times:
[Youngna Park] would seem an ideal candidate to illustrate the term “technosexual,” if the idea did not immediately turn her off. “That’s such a weird phrase,” she said. “I just imagine kids putting on cologne to sit behind their computers. That’s really weird.”You'd think CK would have done enough market research to have predicted the extreme skepticism and wariness they have for the product. And Youngna wrote on her blog that she was "contacted not by the newspaper, but by the client, who arranged an interview time with the reporter from the paper." To CK's credit, at least they didn't offer plants.A friend of Ms. Park’s, Zach Klein, 24, has also participated in market surveys attempting to distill his demographic, though he was skeptical of the idea of companies adapting to the language of the target audience.
“What’s most interesting about our generation is that it is very obvious when brands are attempting to market down to us when they use our own vernacular or types of personal technology,” Mr. Klein said. “It’s very transparent, and I tend to shy away.”
And when was the last time any 20-something, or 30-something, or that matter, wore a Calvin Klein fragrance? We'd say high school would be the most common answer - those crazy Obsession ads from David Lynch were awesome.
That said, they say even bad publicity is good publicity. CK is introducing CKin2u in April. We actually think the perfume could be a great success - with high schoolers. Free advice to the CK marketing department: It's all about LiveJournal ads!
Photograph of what one Sharpie-wielding person thinks by limonada on Flickr
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I really dislike when any company (or anyone for that matter) assumes that everyone of a same age range can be targeted with the same ad campaign. First, even twenty-somethings have distinct personalities. Second, much of our change as a person happens between the ages of 20 and 30, when most are entering the world as a wholly independent person for the first time, living on their own, getting "adult" jobs, often graduating college, getting married, possibly going to graduate school. Your best bet: just make it smell good.
This article ("...CK One was so authentically grunge it was carried in record stores alongside albums by Nirvana." uh, yeah, ok) and the whole marketing BS behind it (shape that bottle like on of those ipods the young people are so cuckoo for!) are so hopelessly out of touch, it's almost sad. Baby boomers are trying to get their finger on the pulse of The Kids, and they are failing. 15 yr olds don't give a schitt about U2 or Madonna or Rod Stewart or the hitmakers from 20 years ago.
Sure, everyone in Williamsburg will sneer at Calvin Klein but the plebes in suburban Chicago/Atlanta/etc. looking to get a little street cred in their neighborhoods will eat this stuff up.
I think the real game being played here is the whole "it's for 20-somethings! honest!" schtick, when really the company knows that it's high schoolers/tweens who will buy. When I was in middle school, CKone was all the rage - we're talking 12-year-olds here. I'm sure this will be the same, after all, what 25 year old uses LOLz and the like? It's teenspeak. Same as the magazine "Seventeen" - really their market is the pre/early-teens, not actual 17-year-olds. It's appealing to young kids to have a product that they think is intended for a slightly older, hipper consumer.
But youngna's a cutie... why wouldn't they want to be associated with her?
Best Graffiti Ever.