Here's an Answer to a Frequent Asked Question:
Why is Hello Kitty So Popular?
My Interpretation:
For me, the answer is pretty simple. I believe we became fascinated with Hello Kitty in our childhood and that fascination never really faded away as we grew older into adults. Although as we have gotten older, there were valid criticisms on Sanrio's merchandise designs marketed for the mainstream audiences that did not meet the high standards of what we had seen and experienced when we were kids. To overcome this, I believe Sanrio has successfully turned around it's image to satisfy both audiences: (the new fans) children and the Sanrio adult fans. In order to draw back the older Sanrio fans and gain new fans, I believe Sanrio has re-worked their marketing strategy to include using the social media to their advantages and collaborating with other brand name companies that would assure the consumers would take notice of their products. With so many collaborations out there, Hello Kitty has become part of the American culture. And if you think about it carefully, Sanrio has experiences with obsessions. They've seen it in the eyes of their consumers whenever they enter a Sanrio store. They've heard about the countless, many crazy fan collector stories out there. They also know that if one friend is spazzing about an obsession, it will spark an intrigue as to what is so fascinating about said obsession, which will closely follow to an interest in taking up the same obsession. This pattern will continue, especially since we now have social media at our fingertips. I hate to say it, but many people jump on fads. Whose to say these new fans will wake up one day and forget about Sanrio and it's obsession? All I know is that if you genuinely love Sanrio's characters, it'll shine through your collection and related projects. It's a good thing that Hello Kitty is so popular and everywhere now. Sanrio has officially made it acceptable to wear Hello Kitty clothes on the street these days. Their collaboration with Forever 21 just sealed the deal. Did you not see the latest Sanrio fashion they have came out with? It's classy... it's so kawaii... it's up to the high standard in adult fashion... and most of all, we all love it. Also, it doesn't hurt that Sanrio has endorsed celebrities to promote their products.
Here's another View on this Frequent Asked Question
You can read it through this
link or you can scroll below to read it fully.
Before reading the whole article, here are the highlights:
Source: http://www.quora.com/Why-is-Hello-Kitty-so-popular
From Marc
The
little half-Japanese, half-English cat has become so globally
recognisable that it is, perhaps, inevitable that the Japanese board of
tourism has appointed her their official tourism ambassador to China and
Hong Kong. This is not the first time the world has looked to Hello
Kitty to perform an ambassadorial role; she has been United States
children's ambassador for Unicef since 1983.
Hello
Kitty's creator started out as the Japanese equivalent of Hallmark
cards. Sanrio was founded by Shintaro Tsuji in 1960; Tsuji, a qualified
chemist, lost his mother when he was 13 and spent an unhappy childhood
with reluctant relatives. He attended a kindergarten run by a Canadian
missionary and saw for the first time the custom of birthdays, which
were not traditionally celebrated in Japan. He decided he would use his
company to foster the culture of gift-giving.
As
an experiment in 1971, in the wake of student riots, the company began
printing rounded, cutesy images on previously blank writing stationery
and in 1974, Hello Kitty was drawn. She was drawn without a mouth, which
later made her the perfect cross-cultural representative. She wasn't
given a mouth, explains Sanrio, because she "speaks from the heart.
She's Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular
language".
She
was made partly English because when she was first drawn, the Japanese
rarely travelled abroad; foreign, especially English, associations, were
particularly popular. The stationery and diaries were a hit with
schoolgirls during the 1980s and the company soon branched out in to
other fanshi guzzu (fancy goods).
In
the 1990s, Hello Kitty had a second stab at fame as it was was
re-marketed as a "retro" brand. Shops, run by the outlet label Vivitix,
marketed Hello Kitty to teens and adults, appealing to their sense of
nostalgia. As eight year-olds they would have used Hello Kitty pencils
and pencil cases in the classroom; in their late teens and early
twenties, they reached for Hello Kitty satchels and make-up mirrors.
"Hello
Kitty stands for the innocence and sincerity of childhood and the
simplicity of the world," says Helen McCarthy, an author and expert on
Japanese animation and comics. "Women and girls all over the world are
happy to buy in to the image of the trusting, loving childhood in a safe
neighbourhood that Hello Kitty represents. They don't want to let go of
that image, so as they grow up, they hang onto Hello Kitty out of
nostalgic longing – as if by keeping a symbolic object, they can somehow
keep hold of a fragment of their childhood self."
Spotlight on a commenter:
In addition to Marc's answer, I would say that Hello Kitty is popular because of the dissemination
of Japan's "kawaii" (cute) culture to the rest of the world. It's very
clever how, in Japan, Hello Kitty represents that non-aggressive,
non-offensive, non-threatening, exotic (or at least she used to be, for
the reasons of Japanese isolation that Marc mentions), acceptably
desirable figure, when she travels to, say, America, she maintains that
exact reputation because she's an export from quirky, fantastical Japan.
Further,
I think the psychology of the design of Hello Kitty plays a huge role
in why she's loved by so many people. On one hand, the environment and
companions they've created for her remind us of love, friendship,
sweetness, etc. which appeals to our soft side. But she lacks enough
definition that a lot of personality can be imprinted on her based on
the buyer's own impressions, essentially personalizing the connection
that Hello Kitty makes on each unique owner, regardless of age. In his
book, "Buying In", Rob Walker talks about how corporate logos are
symbols and it's the consumers of corporate logos that imbue these
symbols with meaning, and Hello Kitty is a great example of this. It
can't be said that she speaks for any specific cultural or social ideas
(because she has no mouth--haha), Sanrio has given her virtually no back
story so that provides little influencing factors, and she doesn't even
have emotions (as her lack of facial features make it possible for
someone to assign any emotion that they find appealing). She takes on
different meanings based on how she's appropriated (think Hello Kitty on
a coin purse versus Hello Kitty on an adult toy).
Basically, as an icon with no meaning at all, she can take on any meaning that we desire and therein lies her value.
- Ly Nguyen, May 12, 2010
Top cat: how 'Hello Kitty' conquered the world
Independent (dated May 21, 2008)
by Esther Walker
When, in 1974, employees at the Japanese design company Sanrio
created Hello Kitty, the small, rounded cartoon cat with a red bow
between her ears and no mouth, they could never have dreamt that she
would become the global megastar she is today. Sales of Hello Kitty
merchandise now account for half of Saniro's $1bn (£500m) annual
turnover and her face adorns 50,000 products, sold in more than 60
countries.
The little half-Japanese, half-English cat has become so globally
recognisable that it is, perhaps, inevitable that the Japanese board of
tourism has appointed her their official tourism ambassador to China and
Hong Kong. This is not the first time the world has looked to Hello
Kitty to perform an ambassadorial role; she has been United States
children's ambassador for Unicef since 1983.
Dr Sharon Kinsella, a lecturer at Oxford University on Japanese
sociology, thinks that Japan's choice of Hello Kitty as their
representative is unsurprising.
"It seems predictable enough to have her adopted as a diplomatic
envoy," she says. "That has been the way of the 'Cool Japan' bandwagon
for a few years now, and relations with China are no healthier. It seems
a bit farcical to select Hello Kitty, however: as if a dumbed-down
cultural icon that was cool in her retro boom in the 1990s, and which
Chinese teenagers dig, can somehow do something significant to alter the
gnarly and difficult state of China-Japan relations."
Hello Kitty's creator started out as the Japanese equivalent of
Hallmark cards. Sanrio was founded by Shintaro Tsuji in 1960; Tsuji, a
qualified chemist, lost his mother when he was 13 and spent an unhappy
childhood with reluctant relatives. He attended a kindergarten run by a
Canadian missionary and saw for the first time the custom of birthdays,
which were not traditionally celebrated in Japan. He decided he would
use his company to foster the culture of gift-giving.
As an experiment in 1971, in the wake of student riots, the company
began printing rounded, cutesy images on previously blank writing
stationery and in 1974, Hello Kitty was drawn. She was drawn without a
mouth, which later made her the perfect cross-cultural representative.
She wasn't given a mouth, explains Sanrio, because she "speaks from the
heart. She's Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any
particular language".
She was made partly English because when she was first drawn, the
Japanese rarely travelled abroad; foreign, especially English,
associations, were particularly popular. The stationery and diaries were
a hit with schoolgirls during the 1980s and the company soon branched
out in to other fanshi guzzu (fancy goods).
In the 1990s, Hello Kitty had a second stab at fame as it was was
re-marketed as a "retro" brand. Shops, run by the outlet label Vivitix,
marketed Hello Kitty to teens and adults, appealing to their sense of
nostalgia. As eight year-olds they would have used Hello Kitty pencils
and pencil cases in the classroom; in their late teens and early
twenties, they reached for Hello Kitty satchels and make-up mirrors.
"Hello Kitty stands for the innocence and sincerity of childhood and
the simplicity of the world," says Helen McCarthy, an author and expert
on Japanese animation and comics. "Women and girls all over the world
are happy to buy in to the image of the trusting, loving childhood in a
safe neighbourhood that Hello Kitty represents. They don't want to let
go of that image, so as they grow up, they hang onto Hello Kitty out of
nostalgic longing – as if by keeping a symbolic object, they can somehow
keep hold of a fragment of their childhood self."
And so now, although originally conceived as a character that would
appeal to pre-teen girls, Hello Kitty is no longer regarded as being for
children only. Along with the likes of Coca-Cola and Nike, she has
become a brand phenomenon.
Her wide, white, slightly questioning face first adorned a clear
plastic coin purse, which retailed for 240 yen (£1.17). Now you can buy
almost anything stamped with the Hello Kitty brand, including towels,
pencils, clothing, stationery and mobile phone covers, selling in more
than 60 countries. Hello Kitty's popularity with adults is reflected in
the changing products available: you can buy Hello Kitty-branded laptops
and adult-sized underwear – you can buy more merchandise and charge it
to your Hello Kitty credit card, cannily supplied by the Bank of
America; really dedicated fans can register for their own
@hellokitty.com email address at the website, Sanriotown.com.
Hello Kitty is technically just one character who inhabits an entire,
fictional world dreamt up by Sanrio. She lives in cyberspace on the
fondant-coloured Sanriotown website. Hello Kitty has her own birthday, 1
November, (which makes her a Scorpio) and, as her English heritage
befits, she lives in London with her parents and twin sister, Mimmy. Her
many hobbies include travelling, music, reading and "eating yummy
cookies her sister Mimmy bakes".
Other characters who share Hello Kitty's world include Dear Daniel
(Hello Kitty'son-off boyfriend), Kathy, Tippy and Thomas. Conveniently
located to the right of Hello Kitty's biography on the Sanriotown
website is a link to the online shop, where you can buy a silver and
pearl Hello Kitty necklace for £60, a steering-wheel cover for £14 or a
Hello Kitty digital camera for £80.
Sanrio's theme park, Puroland, opened in 1990; it features Sanrio's
most popular characters, with Hello Kitty as its star draw, and with
yearly figures of 1.5 million visitors, from around the world, it is one
of Japan's most popular visitor attractions.
Hello Kitty even became an animated character. She first appeared on
the American-animated Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theatre, which was shown
on US television throughout 1987. Another series ran in 1991. This year,
Hello Kitty was seen for the first time in 3D in an animation made by
Sanrio Digital, called The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends. The
Hello Kitty craze reached fever pitch in the early to mid-1990s, when
celebrity endorsement from fellow megastars such as Mariah Carey, Paris
Hilton and Britney Spears were photographed wearing assorted pieces of
Hello Kitty branding. The American singer Lisa Loeb is a particular fan,
dedicated an entire album to Hello Kitty, entitled Hello Lisa.
When Hello Kitty was first marketed to the US, the cultural
differences meant that changes to the Japanese version had to be made.
Sanrio's market research showed American consumers responded best to
pink and purple kitties and worst to anything blue, yellow or red. The
American audience also took against one of Hello Kitty's friends, a
little snail, which had to be eliminated from the merchandise.
But Sanrio got it right in the end and now there are no differences
in the American and Japanese lines of merchandise. Indeed, when Sanrio
tried to customise Hello Kitty for itsTaiwanese and Hong Kong markets,
putting her in local dress and in local surroundings, the products did
not sell. Her mixed English-Japanese heritage was part of her charm.
Cultural commentators often see the invention of Hello Kitty as part
of a wider cultural wave of kawaii (translatable as "cuteness") in
Japan. Other popular characters in Japan, such as Pokemon, which adorns
the side of Japan Airlines aircraft, are as cosily (or sinisterly,
depending on how you see it) cute. The popularity of kawaii can be seen
as either an example of Japan's harmonious and peace-loving culture or
an example of Japan's culture of non-assertion.
Dr Kinsella describes the ingredients of a kawaii character in her
essay Cuties in Japan: "The essential anatomy of a cute cartoon
character is small, soft, infantile, mammalian, round, without bodily
appendages (arms), without bodily orifices (mouths), non-sexual, mute,
insecure, helpless or bewildered."
Hello Kitty's cuteness, says Dr Kinsella, was originally good at
selling merchandise to schoolgirls because it lent something of a
personality to an otherwise soulless piece of writing paper or a plain
desk diary.
"Now, cute has become a new national style," she adds. "It is being
used diplomatically and in fine-art circles to promote Japan. It has
come a long way from its schoolgirl roots."
Other Sanrio creations
BADTZ-MARU
Badtz-Maru is the only Sanrio character aimed at both boys and girls;
teenage boys often have tattoos of this bad-attitude penguin in his
classic pose: one eye closed and tongue sticking out. He was the
official mascot for the 2006 FIBA World Championship of basketball,
which was held in Japan.
LITTLE TWIN STARS
Little Twin Stars are a brother and sister called Kiki and Lala; they
live on a cloud. Kiki has blue hair and sometimes appears with a
star-shaped halo, while Lala has pink hair and carries a wand. Launched
by Sanrio in 1975, they became particularly popular in the 1980s.
MY MELODY
My Melody is the first rabbit character released by Sanrio. She was
originally marketed as a Little Red Riding Hood character when she first
appeared in 1976, hence the red hood. She was popular in the Seventies,
but then fell out of fashion.
KEROPPI
Keroppi the frog was released in 1987 and rivalled Hello Kitty in
terms of merchandising in the early 1990s, particularly in the UK. The
Keroppi line of trinkets was discontinued when sales started to decline.
