"Britney Spears has connected extremely well with a demographic that had been historically not particularly well represented at department stores within the [fragrance] field," says E. Scott Beattie, chairman and CEO of Elizabeth Arden Inc. "The success of this brand underscores the great opportunity that existed to sell products to this customer."

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To reach this under-served fragrance industry demographic, Elizabeth Arden struck a deal with Pembroke Pines-based Claire's Stores Inc. to sell Curious in its boutique-like shops nationwide. Beattie says it is the first fragrance ever sold in Claire's teen accessories stores, and that it has been "very successful for us and Claire's."

Another important element of Elizabeth Arden's strategy for the Curious scent was to advertise through media heavily viewed by young women, such as music video cable channels MTV and VH1, as well as mobile phone text messaging and Internet ads.

The targeted advertising is an important key to Curious' success, because, "Fragrances are marketing driven," says Larry H. Oskin, president of Marketing Solutions, Inc., a company specializing in the professional beauty business. "That's partly why the fragrances are so expensive--because it's all of the marketing that you're partly paying for."

But Beattie notes that price is not a huge barrier for the teen demographic. "Their consumer spending capability is tremendous," he says. And according to New York-based consumer market research firm Packaged Facts, teen buying power is expected to reach $190 billion by 2006.

Oskin notes that teen consumers often spend more on beauty and fragrance products than their parents, who are more "worried about putting food on the table and the rent and other things."

The Britney Spears scent is a marked departure for the global fragrance company that made a name for itself with spokeswomen like celebrities Elizabeth Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones. "It's obviously important for us because many of our brands within our portfolio tend to be skewed to an older audience," says Beattie. She adds that the luxury fragrance industry as a whole has not effectively reached out to young people in the past.

This is most likely because, according to Colorado-based fragrance industry expert Melinda Minton, "teens have purchasing power but don't apply their dollars to fragrance as a first choice," she says. "Fashion and makeup are higher draws for teens."

But the high sales generated by Curious have challenged this commonly held belief, helping Elizabeth Arden's stock receive a five-star rating from BusinessWeek, the highest investment recommendation that the magazine gives. The magazine also notes that double-digit increases in recent years in fragrance sales at mass-retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have been beneficial to Elizabeth Arden, which it says has a "strong mass-channel presence" within those stores.

Beyond Curious, other efforts to diversify the fragrance giant's product offerings also caught the eye of investors. Elizabeth Arden recently signed racecar driver Jeff Gordon to endorse men's fragrance Halston Z-14, hoping to appeal to a growing NASCAR fan base, according to published reports. Fragrance sales make up over 75 percent of Elizabeth Arden's total sales, which topped $814 million last year.

The verdict is not yet in as to whether Curious will be as popular worldwide as it was in the primarily English-speaking countries of its original launch, but Elizabeth Arden vice president of marketing Tamara Steel believes it will be, because, she says, Spears is "perceived as a worldwide celebrity." A second Britney Spears fragrance is scheduled to launch this fall, Steel says.