There’s a new sight on the tarmac at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport these days. In some ways she seems right at home in China. Her name is Kitty White, she weighs approximately three apples and is roughly five apples tall. You might know her as “Hello Kitty” – and she’s now adorning the China-bound planes of EVA Airlines.

 

The trademark green colours of the Taiwanese carrier have been given a cartoon makeover with a kitty theme that goes far beyond the exterior of the aircraft. Flight attendants wear Hello Kitty aprons, distributing kitty utensils, napkins and pillows. Even the toilet paper is adorned with Hello Kitty. More than 60 kitty-themed items are featured on board – with even more available to purchase in the Hello Kitty Duty Free catalogue. And it’s all just one manifestation of a cat empire that now spans the globe.

 

But what does Hello Kitty mean for business? Hello Kitty serves as a lesson that with intelligent branding, marketing, and licensing, a very simple concept can capture the hearts and minds of consumers of all backgrounds. It’s a lesson that Hello Kitty has been providing since 1974.

 

Created by the Japanese corporation Sanrio, Hello Kitty has today grown into a global industry worth over US$ 1.5 billion. Dolls and clothes, televisions and toasters, wine and jewelry, dishwashers and automobiles. And while they may not be officially licensed, the little kitten can also been found decorating chainsaws and assault rifles. Sanrio manufactures up to 6,000 of these products at any given time – and through extensive licensing agreements, the speechless little cat can be found on up to 22,000 different products worldwide.

 

No region has taken to the cat with the same enthusiasm as Asia. In 2005, an event in Hong Kong “degenerated into farce,” according to The South China Morning Post, when “more than 1,000 outraged fans complained about unfair arrangements preventing them from getting a limited edition Hello Kitty toy.” These licensed products are serious business. Every year, Sanrio earns over US$500 million in Hello Kitty licensing. Mainland China is seen a major growth market.

 

An investment of over US$215 million has been staked in a 150-acre Hello Kitty theme park to open in Zhejiang province three hours west of Shanghai in 2014.

 

With pastel-coloured rolling hills, oversized purple flowers and a million visitors expected annually, it has already been dubbed the “cutest place on earth.”

 

Meanwhile in Beijing, a restaurant named “Hello Kitty Dreams” has opened in the modern shopping complex of Sanlitun Village. Of course the fakes are never far away.

“China is the biggest source of fake kitty goods,” noted a Sanrio Executive recently. An estimated US$ 800 million of fake Hello Kitty goods are now sold every year in China.

 

With celebrities such as Lady Gaga also showing an affinity for the little kitten and further driving sales, it appears that nothing can keep the little cat down. But celebrity endorsement is only a small driver of this success story. There are many deeper reasons for the outstanding popularity of Hello Kitty.

 

First and foremost is the inherent adaptability of the little feline. Hello Kitty has no phrases, no mannerisms, and no predetermined personality characteristics. Hello Kitty just stands there (and looks cute, of course). A key part of this blank expression is the lack of a mouth and the two simple dots for eyes. With these most minimal of characteristics, her mood can match the mood of the consumer.

 

For business, this allows Hello Kitty to transcend a wide variety of product categories (no matter how absurd). For the consumer, this allows Hello Kitty to serve as a canvas for people of all cultures and nationalities to decorate their own life – thereby giving a vast array of consumers a unique level of product ownership. To some, she might stand for little-girl cute, for others she is nostalgia, and for still more people she’s just plain and simply, incredibly kitsch.

 

Second, the simple principle of marketing scarcity has also been a strategic success. As every new item is released, it is produced in numbers that are small enough to create a buzz of their own. Just have a look on eBay and it’s clear that many original Hello Kitty items are now valuable collector pieces. After all, who wouldn’t give their right arm for a Hello Kitty chainsaw in its original online slots australia packaging?

 

Third and finally, Hello Kitty has been managed like a fashion brand. With every passing season and every passing year, the product range has been constantly adapted and updated. There may be tens of thousands of Hello Kitty products available at any one time, but every month, approximately 600 new Hello Kitty products are released and another 600 others are removed form production. Licensing has allowed the iconic imagery to appear on products around the world, without Sanrio having to spend valuable time and money monitoring and predicting market trends.

 

From a business perspective, all these factors combine to give Hello Kitty a “co-created” nature that is perhaps the most interesting feature of the little feline.

 

It’s a dynamic that is increasingly experienced by brands as they subject themselves to the whims of social media. Three parties; Sanrio, the licensee’s and the consumer, all have a major influencing stake in the direction of the brand. But with such incredible adaptability, Hello Kitty has avoided the pitfalls experienced by many.

 

And what about EVA Airways? They are happy. By partnering with Hello Kitty, they have made their product more fun and are reaching out to customers beyond the “uptight businessman”. They are also making their product more appealing to women, a market segment with increasing influence across Asia. Not to mention the fact EVA planes are now front and centre in hundreds of thousands of traveler’s snapshots across Asia. EVA Airways are writing just one chapter in the story of how a plain and essentially featureless cartoon grew into a multibillion-dollar global business phenomenon.

 

So, next time you see the ridiculous little cat on the shirt or handbag of a teenage girl tapping away on her smartphone and her weibo, just remember, that beneath the cute feline exterior is a priceless brand equity and a solid business platform for the future. ■