For anyone who believes cats are tiny, furry masterminds planning to take over the world, well, I have news for you; that already happened.
Hello Kitty, the adorable and/or creepy (depending on how you look at it) character from Sanrio, is everywhere—everywhere. From the usual suspects like stuffed animals and backpacks to the bizarre—engine oil, guitars, and a high-end clutch)–this fine little feline makes roughly $6 billion per year with her empire. Here’s how she grew from her humble beginnings in Tokyo to a worldwide phenomenon.
Back to the Start: Sanrio
Sanrio started in 1960. Shintaro Tsuji, the founder, established the Yamanashi Silk Center Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, which would, less than a decade later, become Sanrio.
Shintaro wanted to create a new type of social communication business, creating gift items like clothing, tableware, and stationery. The idea came to him because of his son’s experience in school.
“Around 1960, my son was attending an elementary school in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, so I asked his classmates how many of them had received any gifts on their birthdays,” Shintaro told The Japan Times. “Only 3 out of 35 said they had. Nobody had never experienced having birthday parties. And the three students who had received birthday gifts all said the gifts came from their mothers. So I thought I wanted to do a business related to birthdays and gift-giving.”
He officially established Sanrio Greetings Co., Ltd. in 1969, and five years later, in 1974, Hello Kitty came onto the scene.
A Star is Born
Hello Kitty—whose real name is Kitty White—hails from London, stands approximately five apples tall, and believes “you can never have too many friends.” She would grace the world with her presence on a product for the first time in 1975—a coin purse. Today, you can find her face on at least 50,000 products (and those are just the official ones), and she’s also had many of her own television series, comic books like Hello Kitty Doki and Hello Kitty Peace, an online manga, a musical album, and video games.
What exactly is it about this cat that the world finds so compelling? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that Hello Kitty is, in fact, not a kitty at all.
Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii, has studied Hello Kitty for years and has even published a book about her. In 2014, Christine curated a Hello Kitty exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, and Sanrio insisted on very particular wording about miss Kitty White.
“That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show,” Christine told the Los Angeles Times. “Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature.”
Cute Culture
Although Sanrio doesn’t classify her as a cat, Hello Kitty still looks so darn adorable—she is the epitome of “kawaii,” a word which roughly translates to “cute” in Japanese. You could describe it better as a culture rather than a trend, and kawaii gives a sweet, lovable personality to anything (even inanimate objects).
Scholar Joshua Paul Dale explained, “[Kawaii] communicates the unabashed joy found in the undemanding presence of innocent, harmless, adorable things.” So while you may find nothing particularly endearing about police mascots or construction signs, make them kawaii police mascots or construction signs, and you can’t help but let out a big, “awww.” Kawaii embodies cuteness, and not in a way that appeals to children only—kawaii is for everyone.
And in a way, it feels like Hello Kitty is for everyone, too. Her features, or lack thereof, often divide people into either fans or haters. She has a simplicity about her, and Kitty White’s face doesn’t even have a mouth—something which gives her a broad appeal beyond the age, gender, or geographic location of those who adore her.
“She’s stoic, she’s expressionless, and people can put onto her almost any kind of emotion,” branding expert Dorie Clark explained to the Associated Press. “She can mean almost anything to anyone.”
What’s Next for Hello Kitty
She’s made her way from a tiny coin purse in Tokyo to tens of thousands of products worldwide, but for a genderless, mouthless non-cat overtaking the world, could this be enough? Sales and revenue in their fiscal year 2017 were down 13 percent from the year before. Even back in 2010, the New York Times pondered if Hello Kitty was “running out of product lives.”
It’s not all about the products, though. In our digital world, brands must create experiences for consumers that go beyond merely consuming items from a store shelf. Sanrio has done this with a Hello Kitty Cafe Truck offering treats and merch, the opening of a Hello Kitty Cafe in Irvine, California, and they are even taking her on a world tour this year. You can visit a Hello Kitty theme park in Japan or Malaysia, and if you find yourself in the Middle East (like in Dubai or Bahrain), then it’s possible to get pampered at the Hello Kitty Beauty Spa.
By easing into the trend of prioritizing experiences over things, Sanrio has ensured that our dear Hello Kitty is here to stay. The products bring Kitty White into our homes, but the experiences themselves bring her closer to our hearts.
