Faster, pussycat — sell, sell!
So goes the unspoken mantra for Hello Kitty, one of global pop culture’s most successful, most ubiquitous and, after three decades, most durable brands. For Japan’s Sanrio Company Ltd., the worldwide purveyor of everything Hello Kitty, its steady outpouring of cute-cat merchandise constitutes more than a product line; with more than 20,000 items available at any given time, of which roughly 10,000 are aimed at the North American/South American market, Hello Kitty amounts to a vast consumer-goods universe, accounting for the largest chunk of Sanrio’s nearly $1 billion annual sales around the globe.
Sanrio has other, lesser stars in its cute-character lineup, including the droopy-eyed penguin Badtz Maru and the baseball-playing frog Keroppi. None of them, though, has as big a fan base or as much earning power as Sanrio founder and President Shintaro Tsuji’s signature creation — a white-faced, round-headed cat with a little bow on one ear, a strangely emotionless expression and, perhaps most strikingly, no mouth. No other creature whose image appears on the key chains, handkerchiefs, coin purses, stationery and other items the Japanese call “fancy goods” has Hello Kitty’s allure.
That’s because no other member of the Japanese company’s money-making characters has what Hello Kitty has managed to attract and keep drawing back for more, year after year — legions of girls eager to spend their pocket money generously on products that are seen as fun, affordable and unabashedly cute. They’re girls as young as 6 who, at the very start of their shopping careers, begin spending on little trinkets — pencil cases, notebooks, hair clips — for themselves and their friends. They’re older girls in spirit, too, including women in their 30s who may purchase Hello Kitty lamps, sheets and clocks to outfit their daughters’ bedrooms, or Hello Kitty microwave ovens, T-shirts, tote bags and party supplies for their own use and amusement. (For some, it’s a girlish guilty pleasure.)
The Birth of Cute
“Kawaii (‘cute’ in Japanese) resonates through generations, and it’s the reason for Hello Kitty’s success,” says Ken Belson, a co-author, with Brian Bremner, of “Hello Kitty: The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion-Dollar Feline Phenomenon” (John Wiley & Sons). Belson, a business reporter for The New York Times, and Bremer, Asia economics editor for Business Week in Tokyo, had unprecedented access to Tsuji and other Sanrio executives in Japan while researching the book, whose November 2003 release coincided with the 30th anniversary of Hello Kitty’s debut.
In their book, the authors explain that Tsuji, who grew up during the hardship years of World War II, became an engineer with an instinctive, entrepreneurial flair. Among the first products Tsuji brought to market: silks, “oriental sandals” and, under license from Hallmark in the United States, greetings cards. Those early ventures taught the young businessman about the ups and downs of trend-fueled sales. By the late 1960s, he had secured the licensing rights for Japan for goods emblazoned with the Snoopy character from Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” series. Tsuji also turned his attention to developing character-driven products of his own.
“Hello Kitty came out in 1974 when Japan’s kawaii culture was first emerging,” Belson said by phone from New York, referring to Japan’s now well-known, popular passion for cuteness in general — in pop stars, animal images, advertising — and in cutely designed, cute-looking character goods in particular. “She is the original, and it is hard to replace her. She became the icon of cute for a whole generation. You can’t buy that kind of lucky coincidence.”
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