Hello Kitty was originally designed in 1974 by Sanrio designer Yuko Shimizu. Shimizu left the company about a year later. The Hello Kitty trademark was registered in 1976. The second designer, Setsuko Yonekubo, continued to design until 1980 when the task was handed over to Yuko Yamaguchi.
Hello Kitty was given British ancestry because British culture was very popular with Japanese girls at the time. Kitty's name comes from a cat owned by Alice in the book Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Dear Daniel, Titi's boyfriend, was created in 1999 and was inspired by Melody, a 1971 film in which the Bee Gees participated in the songwriting and starring Mark Lester as Daniel.
The fictional world of Hello Kitty includes a host of friends and family members. Since 2004, she also has a pet Persian cat she calls Charmmy Kitty and a pet hamster named Sugar. Charmmy is very similar to Hello Kitty but more like a cat.
Hello Kitty is a cute girl, not a cat. This strategy has contributed to Hello Kitty’s popularity. When Hello Kitty was launched, Sanrio did almost no market testing or advertising. Moreover, as long as it did not tarnish the cute and innocent image of Kitty, Sanrio almost did not do anything with any product (except cigarettes, alcohol and guns). Will grant permission to use.
After Hello Kitty became famous, Sanrio rarely spent any money on advertising. Instead, it adopted the concept of all-round marketing. Hello Kitty was printed on every product you can imagine, as small as stickers, Pens, notebooks, clothes, toys, watches, cups, plates, chopsticks, mobile phones, toasters, trash cans, as large as computers, treadmills, cars, and even adventure theme parks that allow people to immerse themselves in them! And occasionally use limited edition products to stimulate collecting behavior and repeat purchase rates.
Hello Kitty’s success has also brought huge business benefits to her business partners. Sanrio has licensed its products to more than 500 companies in Japan and hundreds of companies overseas.
Today, Hello Kitty’s unique image has appeared on about 22,000 different products, selling well in more than 40 countries. In 2004, McDonald's officially launched mini Titi cat ornaments in restaurants. Different colors and cute shapes immediately won the recognition of consumers. In Taiwan, because the mini Kitty launched by McDonald's is very popular, whether or not to buy a set of Hello Kitty for each other has even become a sign for couples to determine whether the other party loves them. McDonald's customers in Singapore even rioted while queuing for Kitty and her boyfriend Dear Daniel-themed Happy Meals.
A series of effective sales strategies have fully unleashed the commercial value of Hello Kitty. It is reported that Hello Kitty generates US$500 million in profits for copyright owner Sanrio every year, and also earns billions of US dollars in revenue for companies that have authorized the use of her image. It is said that Microsoft Corporation of the United States once considered offering $5.6 billion to acquire the copyright of Didi Cat. Her influence even spilled over into the business field - the political spat incident approved by the Taiwan authorities, the Kitty murder case in Hong Kong, the global cultural movement... until someone used her as the subject of a paper. "She is like my good luck charm," as the popular Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson said. This innocent and lovely girl with a round face has not only achieved the dreams of countless people, she has also achieved her own animation business kingdom.
This cute cat girl that originally appeared on cheap plastic wallets has now transformed into a cute icon making a lot of money around the world.
Moreover, don’t forget that unlike Doraemon and Garfield, Hello Kitty is just a commodity and is not supported by any movies or comics. The most marketable cat in the world is the same as the most famous dog in the world - SNOOPY (Snoopy), the most popular bear in the world - Winnie Pooh (Winnie Pooh) and other cartoon characters. The reason for its longevity lies in its ability to create products that not only appeal to children, but also capture the hearts of women around the world.
For more than 30 years, this cute girl has continued to smile, making more children fall in love with her, and has become the most loyal playmate of many children. When a generation of girls grow up and become mothers, they will still like this girl - Hello Kitty - just like their daughters. Supporters rely on this expressionless cat face to interpret her thoughts at will. This is also Sanrio's idea, allowing the mouthless Hello Kitty to give consumers room for imagination, allowing people to project their own emotions onto Hello Kitty. In other words: If you think Hello Kitty is happy today, she will be happy; if you are in a bad mood today, Didi Kitty will be sad. This kind of role substitution makes it easy for people to feel that she is a close partner.
Japan is a developed industrial country, and the fast-paced work and life make people feel a lot of pressure. However, the Japanese have their own way of relieving stress, which is to have a child-like mentality of not wanting to grow up.
They like those cute plush toys, clothes, backpacks, and even laptops with cartoon characters on them. Many girls in their twenties like to wear babydolls and bows to act innocent and cute.
This pursuit of cute elements has become a unique landscape in Japan. Hello Kitty is cute, sarcastic, and quite subversive. Therefore, she became very popular in Japan.
In today's urbanization era, not only in Japan, but urbanites all over the world are generally facing the gradual alienation of interpersonal relationships. More and more new urban generations have become lonely and do not know how to interact with other people. Communication, and machines and toys became the objects for them to express their feelings, which also contributed to the success of various cartoon products.
So, Hello Kitty can not only capture the hearts of children, adults and even the elderly will fall in love with her. Hello Kitty seems to have a multi-faceted influence on consumers. For children, she is a cute toy; for mature women, Hello Kitty evokes nostalgia, recalling the innocence of childhood; for fathers , obeying the child's purchase wishes can show the father's love. In other words, the same product attracts different ages, tastes, styles, and desires, causing people of different age groups to join the buying ranks.
This cute girl has no supporting stories, movies, or books... It can be said that Hello Kitty has almost none of the successful elements of the Disney cartoon product model, but she is. One of the most profitable cartoon characters of all time. Didi Cat satisfies people's desire for innocence and relies entirely on its own charisma to become an enduring cultural symbol in the 20th and 21st centuries. Sanrio has always been able to follow the fashion trend as quickly as possible. The perception and grasp of the pulse of fashion are the key factors for the success of Hello Kitty. Every month, Hello Kitty will launch 500 new products and eliminate 500 old products. It has been adjusting its product line so that its products can comply with different trends. In the early 1980s, when teddy bears were sweeping across Japan, Titi the cat could be seen clinging to a small bear as her friend. In the mid-1980s, almost all Japanese little girls from middle-class families were learning piano, so Hello Kitty who played the grand piano appeared...
She can also fit in different locations. For example: Sanrio in Japan designed 200 "localized" Titi cat dolls to represent their respective regions. These dolls eventually became very popular souvenirs for tourists.
Tokyo’s Kitty looks like a city hall official; Kyoto’s Kabuki fan has a beautiful shape; Okinawa’s citrus juice has a refreshing taste, and the citrus-packed Kitty has a unique and fresh look; dominating the Japanese kitchen ——Osaka Sister-in-law’s Kitty style presents you with an exquisite snack; Hello Kitty in various shapes allows consumers to appreciate the customs and customs of various regions in Japan.
Sanrio also launches suitable products based on the growth of mainstream consumer groups. In 2004, in order to commemorate Hello Kitty's 30th birthday, the newly launched products were mainly aimed at capturing the adult market, such as toasters, coffee machines, microwave ovens, etc., in order to retain adult fans who grew up with her at the same age.
In fact, we also need to understand the underlying reason that really made Hello Kitty a booming brand at the end of the last century: she successfully entered the adult market. She introduced adults to a new kind of cartoon.
Faced with increasing life or work pressure, complex interpersonal relationships, increasingly creative working conditions, uncertainty about the future and anxiety about reality, many young people, especially I am a woman who misses the simplicity, innocence and dream-filled mentality of my childhood very much. Harry Potter's appeal to millions of adults is a prime example of this.
In 2013, Hello Kitty provided a way for consumers to return to their childhood and look more chic and fashionable. She represents the typical "cute" culture nowadays, which puts an emotional and idealistic coating on real life. In the eyes of Didi Mao, life should be emotional, and she expressed the voice of young consumers.
If we can understand this grasp of culture, we can naturally understand why cartoon brands represented by Hello Kitty can occupy the hearts of so many young people, and we can also understand why Didi Cat can carry out such diversified cross-category extensions - her consumers want it to do so.
There are many mass consumer goods brands that when extending extensions, they mainly consider that the extended products cannot conflict with their own brand core values. Hello Kitty’s approach is different. She provides her consumers with a way to define themselves. The personalized approach allows consumers to escape from the real world into a very innocent and lovely Kitty brand world. This extension method is not oriented to strengthen brand equity, but oriented to the lifestyle of target consumers. This is specifically reflected in the fact that any product that Titikao’s target consumers will use may become the target of its involvement.
It can be said that Sanrio does not just provide a cute girl, but provides an opportunity for those who like Hello Kitty to create a lifestyle of their own. This gives the brand a breadth and depth unparalleled by ordinary cartoon images or ordinary fast-moving consumer goods. Hello Kitty is no longer an image name, but a symbol of an attitude towards life. This is the underlying reason why Hello Kitty is so successful. Serie A giant AC Milan announced today on its official website that it will cooperate with the famous female consumer brand Hello Kitty. The two parties will launch a series of exclusive Milan products with the Hello Kitty logo. In mid-April, this series of products will be Will meet the fans.
Under the guidance of Milan’s jersey sponsor Adidas, the Milan club contacted Sanrio, a company owned by the famous women’s consumer brand Hello Kitty. Milan hopes to use Sanrio to sell women’s products. Sanrio also hopes to cooperate with wealthy clubs like Milan.