For four decades, Hello Kitty has become a business empire. And Sanrio has paid attention carefully to its image - that is cute and sweet Hello Kitty. But how did the character remain timeless not interrupted by the varying fad?
"Hello Kitty is number one, and you have to choose what is suitable for her -- you cannot ask her to do whatever," Sanrio Asia COO Caroline Tsang told CNN Money.
"We take Hello Kitty as a celebrity, so you have to think of yourself as a manager of an entertainment company," Tsang enthusiastically stated.
She also specified that young girls patronizing Hello Kitty as an icon are so important because treasured memory lives on. When they get old, they would pass their craze to their kids. So the company is making sure that young moms remain as their fans. In fact, Hello Kitty had just recently launched makeup lines and luxury jewelries Mikimoto and Swarovski.
It was 2009 when Hello Kitty became a profit making machine as the newly appointed managing director, Rehito Hatoyama, thought of licensing for Hello Kitty.
Credit Suisse Analyst Masashi Mori said the company had restructured strategy because manufacturing products and owning retail stores serves only small margins.
Sanrio then restored the brand, licensing Hello Kitty trade name. This allowed the company to engage in a much wider global consumer in a less risky way. At the same time, Sanrio could still have the full control of the image while collecting royalties; a move that yielded millions of dollars to the company.
At present, you can find Hello Kitty from almost all sorts of merchandize; accessories, apparels, home interiors, appliances, paper towels, car covers, even food and beverages.
Sanrio is also putting emphasis on quality control. For instance, the interior and tableware of the Hello Kitty restaurant in Hong Kong were initially evaluated by Sanrio. Every dish needs to be decent. The food styling was meticulously critiqued to assure that Hello Kitty's face was not distorted in each dumpling.
CBS8 reported that the Hello Kitty themed restaurant had conceptualized traditional dishes three times to perfectly incorporate Hello Kitty touch. The owner said they license out the brand to leverage profit.
In an unpleasant incident, a report from the Sun Sentinel stated the police are seeking the public to distinguish a man and a woman in Broward County who stole large Hello Kitty car mats from two Advance Auto Parts stores.
Before that, the couple was eyed stealing smaller Hello Kitty mats for a back seat in the other city. The report said none has been stolen except for the mats. "Now they have the complete set," Tania Rues, police spokeswoman said.
Hello Kitty accounts for over 75% of Sanrio's $142M yearly revenue and continues to heap $600M every year.
Join the Conversation