Blogosphere Backlash Begins Against Calvin Klein

Update:  The worldwide blogosphere backlash against Calvin Klein's ill-fated CKin2u has begun and I don't mind leading the charge.  This is a cautionary tale for all marketers.

I took only one semester of astronomy in college.  Unfortunately, its was a second semester course, and I will never forget the wicked winter winds blowing off Boston's Charles River as I stood on a frigid rooftop studying the heavens.  I will also never forget the lessons on how stars die.  From red supergiant, to blue giant, to white dwarf and eventually a spectacular and rapid disintegration.  Dustbunny.com puts it simple enough for kids to understand: "When a star's furnace starts to run out of fuel, the star starts to fall off the main sequence and begins the dying process."

We are now witnessing the very public implosion of what once was a star brand in the fashion and lifestyle universe.  Calvin Klein has run out of fuel, is way off the main sequence, and has begun its death throes. 

CK has been on the fade for a few years now.  The latest attempt at reincarnation involves what is evidently a comprehensive go-to-market strategy aimed at connecting with today's socially-oriented, mobile consumers, a cohort I call the Bubble Generation, a group they refer breathlessly to as "technosexuals."   The quixotic strategy includes a new iteration of the CKOne fragrance, a supergiant hit from a decade ago, renamed CKin2u.  The texting language is meant to be hip (right, maybe in Y2K lol ;-/). 

To make matters worse, they've launched a social community for the brand, called whatareyouin2.com.  I can't speak for the people who join the community, but I know what Calvin Klein has stepped in2: deep space doo doo. 

Forget New Coke, the biggest marketing misstep of our times is the New CK.

Whether due to arrogance or ignorance, the current stewards of the CK brand have shown themselves to be way out of touch with the new consumers.  Their new brand day dawning lacks the essential authenticity and veracity today's young consumers demand from the get go.  And, as I said last week, nobody today wants to smell like BS.  Moreover, a Flash fragged social community with no center of gravity, that knows so little about you it asks what you're into, is anathema.  People join communities (or neighborhoods therein) where they know others are into the same things they are.  Can you imagine the fatigue factor of hanging out in a community that is so lost in space it is asking you for guidance?  I doubt the folks at Hi5 or Twitter or Imeem are losing any sleep--or members--over this. (Although, not sure which is the bigger bonehead contrivance this week, CK's launch of whatareyouin2.com or Cisco's acquisition of Tribe.com, but I digress).

Truth be told, brand managers today need to realize that you can no longer hide behind clever marketing; this is the anti-marketing generation.  BubbleGen consumers are generous of spirit, but quite unforgiving.  They do not suffer gladly fools or phonies.  And, they talk among themselves, decide for themselves what is hip and what is not.  Hard to steamroll this group.  CKin2u may smell as delicious as The Killers sound and it still won't connect with these consumers if they get a whiff of artifice.  And, everything about this product's marketing reeks of me2 pandering.

Message to the suits at CK:  you can borrow the language, you can borrow the symbols--like the iPod-inspired bottle you've ginned up, you can even put bloggers in your ads, but at the end of the day you didn't earn it and your customers know it.  You've lost their trust, probably lost their business, and I predict, you may soon lose the entire franchise. 

I'm Tombomb and I'm from Silicon Valley.