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Hello Kitty
Named Japan's Tourism Ambassador to China
The Japanese government has
"appointed" Hello Kitty as its tourism
ambassador to China and Hong Kong on Monday.
Japan previously named 11 individuals
(including the pop music duo Puffy AmiYumi) as
tourism ambassadors, but Sanrio's feline mascot
is the first fictional character. Hello Kitty
will be part of the "Visit Japan" campaign that has helped increase
foreign tourism by 60% since it started in 2003. 8.35 million foreign tourists
visited Japan last year, but the campaign organizers are hoping to raise that
number to 10 million.
The Hello Kitty's
Dream Light Fantasy stage musical opened in Beijing earlier this year,
and it will later travel to other countries, including the United States.
- 2008 May 19 JIJI
PRESS
Hello Kitty turns 30
Hello Kitty greeting children while attending a
Halloween parade in Tokyo's Omotesando district
Japan's Hello Kitty, the moon-faced, mouthless white
cat, celebrated her 30th birthday yesterday, evolving from a nameless feline on
a cheap vinyl purse into the money-making global icon of cuteness.
Hello Kitty comes on dolls, key chains, clothes,
credit cards, laptops, vacuum cleaners and even karaoke boxes as a loyal fan
base of young women embraces the cat whose expressionless face can be read in
any way they want.
Tamaki Hirayoshi, a 37-year-old woman living in Tokyo,
has collected some 1,000 Hello Kitty products over three decades. She said she
was most drawn to the cat's eyes - or lack thereof.
'The biggest attraction of Hello Kitty is her eyes.
They are just dots. When a character's eyes look real, it doesn't look pretty,'
said Ms Hirayoshi.
'I must say I'm addicted to Kitty. When I see new
items, I usually buy them. It's like a conditioned reflex,' she said.
Created by Ikuko Shimizu, then a designer of character
goods maker Sanrio Co, Hello Kitty made a humble start in 1974 as a nameless
cartoon cat on the coin purse.
But when Mr Shimizu put the cat with a red bow on
small children's stationery, stuffed dolls and handkerchiefs and called it Hello
Kitty, the mouthless cat was quickly purring.
Hello Kitty products are now sold in 60 nations and
some 50,000 different Kitty products were sold worldwide in the fiscal year to
March 2004.
It was when the Kitty boom subsided around 1980 that
the character came into the hands of its third designer, Yuko Yamaguchi, who is
credited with Hello Kitty's global success. To seek new ideas for Hello Kitty,
Ms Yamaguchi visited Sanrio shops across Japan to talk to customers and read
every fan letter to understand their demands.
Soon she started making Hello Kitty lively by dressing
the cat in all kinds of costumes ranging from a baseball uniform to a China
dress to a wedding dress, putting her on roller skates and creating a new
character, Kitty's boyfriend Daniel.
Thanks to a new, more colourful product line-up,
Kitty's fans have expanded from little girls to high school girls to young
women.
'I will never turn Kitty into a violent or sexual
character. I once had to reject a design because it portrayed Kitty as a skull.
I want people to be happy when they see her,' Ms Yamaguchi has said in a Sanrio
book.
A 25-year-old Kitty fan, who gave her name as Momoko,
said Hello Kitty was almost like a close friend. 'Since I was an elementary
school student, I was a big fan of Kitty. For me, she is more than a character.
I have over 600 Hello Kitty items and they always make me happy,' Momoko said.
Kitty generates about 50 per cent of the revenue of
Sanrio, whose net profit in the three months to June surged nearly six-fold
year-on-year to 1.3 billion yen (S$20 million) thanks in part to robust sales of
Kitty's 30th anniversary-related merchandise.
Ken Asada of Character Data Bank, a marketing research
firm for character goods, said Kitty's longevity may come from her
expressionless face.
'It allows users to synchronise their feelings with
Kitty's. If a user is feeling sad, she will think that Kitty too is feeling sad
because the cat has no expression,' he said. -2004
November 2 AFP
Hello Kitty Lends a Paw To Gold,
Silver Markets
Coins Bearing the Likeness Of Famed Japanese Feline May Widen
Metal Investing
Hello Kitty has returned to Japan's precious-metals
market to again share her marketing magic and hopefully scratch up some interest
among first-time investors.
Japan's Taisei Coins Corp., along with
Hello Kitty owner Sanrio Co., Monday began marketing gold and silver coins
featuring the likeness of Japan's most recognizable feline. The coins, issued to
commemorate the 30th anniversary of Hello Kitty's debut, vary in price from ¥7,350
($66.78) for one-ounce silver coins to ¥126,000 for one-ounce gold coins.
The run will be limited to 1,000
one-ounce gold coins, 2,000 one-quarter-ounce gold coins and 5,000 one-ounce
silver coins.
On one side of the coin is Hello Kitty
adorned in one of six different kimonos, each representing a heroine in a
classic kabuki play. The flip side features Queen Elizabeth II, as the coins
were minted on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
This isn't the first time Hello Kitty
has popped up on Japan's precious-metals market. In February, Tanaka Kikinzoku
Kogyo KK, Japan's largest retailer of precious metals, began offering a
30-millimeter-tall platinum Hello Kitty doll sporting a diamond-encrusted dress
and a hefty price tag of ¥3 million. In March, Sanrio offered 50 sets of gold
Hello Kitty medallions that sold out almost instantly.
However, this week's release marks the
first time the popular cat will appear on a coin.
Toshiharu Kato, a spokesman for Taisei
Coins, said sales in just the first few days have been brisk. Mr. Kato didn't
have exact figures as the coins are being sold through both Taisei Coins and
Sanrio, but he estimates sales have topped ¥100 million.
Possibly more important than actual
sales is the potential for Hello Kitty to introduce precious-metal investing to
a new market segment.
"We went with the Hello Kitty
design to specifically attract women, a demographic that has traditionally shown
little interest in coin collecting," Mr. Kato said. He said the bulk of the
orders so far has come from older men, usually looking for a present to give
their wives, children or grandchildren. "But we are now starting to see an
increase in inquires from women," he said.
Mr. Kato is taking this as a sign that
Hello Kitty is helping to introduce precious metals to a much wider audience.
"Buyers of these coins have so far
included everyone from young women to men in the 60s and 70s," he said.
- 2004 June 18 DOW
JONES NEWSWIRE
WALL ST JOURNAL
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| Gwen Stefani |
Lisa
Loeb at Hello Kitty store in Times Square |
Hello Kitty! popular with
Western celebrities
LOS ANGELES -- Mariah Carey,
Lisa Loeb, Sarah Jessica Parker and Tyra Banks may be grown-up celebrities but
they're not too old to purr over Hello Kitty.
Popular with little girls since the 1970s, Hello Kitty
products are suddenly a hit in Hollywood.
"It's a very reminiscent 'Oh' feeling when I see
or buy Hello Kitty things,'' says Loeb, 34, a fan since 1976. "It reminds
me of my childhood.''
Carey is known to click around in her high heels,
carrying her $59 Hello Kitty boombox. On a recent MTV Cribs episode, the
songbird showed off the boombox, along with her Hello Kitty hair dryer ($29).
A $15 Hello Kitty sequin bag is popular with Banks,
Mandy Moore and members of Destiny's Child. Christina Aguilera, who wore Hello
Kitty jewelry on the cover of Teen People, was recently spotted at Hello Kitty's
Beverly Center store, snapping up everything from luggage to wastebaskets. On
The Tonight Show, she professed her love of Hello Kitty gum to Jay Leno.
Include Gwen Stefani (cellphone case), Jessica Alba
(stationery), Parker (T-shirts), Selma Blair (hat, scarf and mittens set), Drew
Barrymore (watches and stationery) and Brandy (luggage) among Hello Kitty fans.
Why is the brand such a hit with celebs? Could it be
the kitschy Kitty factor?
"Most of us work very hard and we're very, very
busy, so anything that can add a spark of excitement and creativity and fun to
mundane things in life is important to us,'' says Loeb. -
2002 April 23 The
Province
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