Pop culture of the 1990s was saturated with grunge music and disaffected youth. Despite the general distrust of marketers that characterized young adults of that era, one fashion designer was able to turn Gen X angst and alienation into big money. When marketers at Calvin Klein proposed that twenty-somethings needed their own fragrance as they flocked to Nirvana concerts and Lollapalooza festivals, CK One was born. The fruity fragrance, with its unconventional black and white ads featuring mopey androgynous models, was arguably the most perfectly tailored fragrance ever pitched to one market. At its peak, CK One flew off shelves at 20 bottles per minute.

Hoping to duplicate that product's record-breaking success, Calvin Klein has recently announced the sequel to CK One. This time it's today's twenty-something millennials (individuals born in the 1980s and '90s) that are the target segment behind the scent. The new fragrance, CK in2u, has been described as spontaneous and seductive. Ann Gottlieb, a Calvin Klein fragrance consultant for both era-defining perfumes, says that CK in2u is meant to be quick acting and immediately recognizable on the skin. According to Gottlieb, millennials' food and drinks--like Smartwater, coffee-flavored colas, and gum charged with flavor crystals—all come in high-definition, intensified varieties. So their fragrance should also seem busy.

Designing new products in the pattern of older successful products is what much of today's marketing is all about—and the strategy often works. But some analysts wonder if duplicating CK One's 1990s success is like trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice or akin to rehashing old worn out hit songs. Unfazed by claims that CK in2u is derivative, executives at Calvin Klein maintain they are on target. "We have envisioned this as the first fragrance for the technosexual generation," said Tom Murry, the company's president.

Despite confidences expressed by CK executives, it is the "technosexuals" themselves— text-messaging young people whose romantic lives are defined in part by the casual hookup—who will ultimately decide if CK in2u is the fragrance that embodies the aspirations and ideals of their generation.