Calvin Klein is targeting the young blogging and text messaging Internet generation with a new fragrance called CK in2u. The New York Timesreports that the hi-tech in2u bottle was designed by Stephen Burks.
The page is layered with watery graffiti images of the words "sex" and "today," and on top of that, as large as the models, two glass bottles shaped like rocket silos topped in white plastic casing and the name of the new scent: CK in2u.
Embedded in these images, as described by a half-dozen Calvin Klein and Coty executives gathered around a table, is a portrait of a generation they describe as physically bold but emotionally guarded, having grown up using computers as a primary means of interaction. Now young adults, they are post-Abercrombie, post-Juicy Couture and over any number of scents derived from the essences of Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
The CK in2u bottle, designed by Stephen Burks, is made from the same materials - white plastic and glass - recognizable in an iPod. (Fabien Baron designed the original bottle.) The name is written in the shorthand of an instant message, a casual invitation to sex so immediate as to imply there was no time to spell it out: "in to you."
What's also unusual about CK in2u is that it is also being launched with a social network called What Are You IN2? The social network can be found at www.whatareyouin2.com and will debut on March 28th. The Times says CK's marketing push could actually turn off savvy young web users especially with unintentionally amusing text like this, "She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It's intense. For right now."
A typical line from the press materials for CK in2u goes like this: "She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It's intense. For right now."
Which may turn off its intended audience by the tens of thousands.
Few consumers like being marketed to less than 20-somethings, and Calvin Klein and Coty know this because, as part of their development of CK in2u, they interviewed young consumers thought to be typical of their generation, including ones in the Dumbo and Williamsburg sections of Brooklyn.
It could have been worse. They could have called it CK LOL or CK LMAO or CK CUL8R.
