CASE STUDY
The cat that conquered the world: Hello
Kitty and the spread of Nippon culture
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Source: © Sanrio Co., Ltd.
‘We recognize and accept that we have failed to
meet everyone’s expectations. We sincerely
apologize and ask for your forgiveness for any
inconvenience and disappointment this may have
caused. We wish to extend our sincere apologies
and thanks to the Singapore Police Force, Ministry
of the Environment, Singapore Civil Defence Force,
and everyone who has been inconvenienced
during this promotion.’
Stephens (2000) reporting on a full page statement by
McDonald’s Singapore appearing in Singapore newspapers,
January 2000.
‘During this promotion’? They can’t possibly mean a
marketing promotion, can they? The police, government
and civil defence forces needed for a marketing
promotion? The answer is yes—a marketing promotion,
needing the forces of law and order. McDonald’s in
Singapore underestimated the appeal of a white kitten
with bow and no mouth and her mouthless boyfriend and
the chaos caused when consumers felt they might miss
out. The kitten in question is, of course, ‘Hello Kitty’ and
her boyfriend, ‘Dear Daniel’. And the promotion—buy a
burger meal and get a 22 cm high Hello Kitty or Dear
Daniel for $2.60 Singapore dollars, a major savings
compared with the regular retail price.
When McDonald’s began the promotion on New Year’s
Day 2000, it had 2.4 million dolls on hand (in 12
different sets), which according to their estimates was
sufficient quantity for a six-week promotion. What
McDonald’s failed to add into their calculations was first,
the broad-based appeal of Hello Kitty, and secondly, the
Singaporean phenomenon known as kiasu, roughly
translated as ‘the fear of missing out’. Kiasu led
thousands of Singaporeans to wait in line all night to be
the first through the doors to get the increasingly scarce
dolls. Queue jumping led to the arrest of six people and
the injury of a policeman. One man was charged with
disorderly behaviour over protests after McDonald’s
opened a different door to the one he had been waiting
at for 12 hours. At its height, this McKitty McFrenzy
generated almost 300,000 daily visits to McDonald’s.
And they were not all prepubescent girls. Grandparents
lined for hours to get the toys for their grandchildren (or
so they claimed!). Fathers fought for the toy for their
children (again, so they claimed!). And over 20s wanted
Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel for traditional Valentine’s Day
love gifts.
McDonald’s acknowledged that it was caught
unawares and had seriously underestimated demand. To
quell the negative publicity (which reached world media)
they resorted to selling vouchers for Hello Kitty and Dear
Daniel dolls dressed in Chinese wedding outfits,
redeemable when stocks arrived in July 2000.
Embarrassed by garbage bins overflowing with discarded
burger meals in the early weeks of the promotion,
McDonald’s introduced a system where the cost of the
meal could be donated to charity. By mid-February 2000,
$37 000 Singaporean dollars had been donated to
charity compared to estimated takings of $11.7 million
for McDonald’s. All for a little white kitten!
When Sanrio of Japan created Hello Kitty in 1974—
yes she’s in her late 20s!—little did its founder, Shintaro
Tsunji, know that he was creating a multibillion dollar
empire that would not just take hold in Japan but would
take Nippon culture not only to Asia but the rest of the
Case study
Jan Charbonneau
School of Marketing and Tourism, Central Queensland University
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world. Hello Kitty and her boyfriend Dear Daniel have
been joined by Tuxedo Sam, the penguin, and My Melody,
the rabbit, among others and adorn a range of products
and services that is exceptional even in today’s
merchandising culture. The characters adorn standard
merchandise, such as clothing, stationery, housewares,
video games and automatic bank teller, credit and phone
cards. Hello Kitty cafes serving kitty-shaped waffles and
Kitty Colada drinks continue to be extremely popular in
Hong Kong and throughout Asia, as is the Hello Kitty
Megastore in Causeway Bay, selling mega volumes of
Hello Kitty merchandise. Hong Kong television even has a
Hello Kitty sponsored Weather Report—read by
newsreader Wincy Miaow! In the late 1990s, Sanrio
opened Puroland theme park in Tokyo for Hello Kitty
afficcionados, creating a powerful rival for Disneyland
Tokyo, especially among visitors from Taiwan and China.
The turn of the century saw Sanrio launching a Hello Kitty
hotel to cater for the ‘Kittyra’, as Hello Kitty fans are
known in Japan.
If you are initially thinking that Hello Kitty appeals only
to young girls and perhaps some young boys consider
the following items of Hello Kitty merchandise for sale
throughout Asia: Hello Kitty watches adorned with
Austrian Swarovski crystals; Hello Kitty notebook
computers complete with Hello Kitty mouse and
reasonably powerful computing capabilities; companion
Hello Kitty fax machines; powder blue Hello Kitty Yamaha
motorcycles; Hello Kitty jeeps by Daihatsu (sorry, no
whiskers on the bonnet); Hello Kitty body-fat monitors;
Hello Kitty toilet paper; and believe it or not, Hello Kitty
condoms! While the characters appeal primarily to
prepubescent girls in North America (although pop
sensation Christina Aguilera and model Tyra Banks are
fans and American stores carry T-shirts and tank tops in
women’s sizes), Hello Kitty’s appeal throughout Asia is
much broader as witnessed by the merchandise for sale.
That being said, Sanrio’s corporate-owned Kitty
Boutiques generated sales of $1.2 billion in the United
States in 2000, indicating either an extremely lucrative
prepubescent market or a broader appeal than believed.
Sanrio, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has a
Hello Kitty line that covers an estimated 15,000
products, with 100 new items released every month.
Sanrio also licenses approximately 500 companies to
make Sanrio-approved items. As can be imagined, Hello
Kitty is also a hot kitten in the black market, with a
booming trade in knock-off merchandise. A visit to any
Asian street market will reveal stall after stall of Hello
Kitty products, a large number likely not Sanrio-approved.
Sanrio makes sure that store shelves always have new
merchandise, stopping production after a few months
and keeping products on the shelves for only a limited
time. This strategy has increased the collectible value of
the merchandise. Remember the $2.60 McDonald’s
Hello Kitty doll? In early 2001, a six pair set was offered
for sale on the Internet for $470. Hello Kitty has kept up
with technology. For example, www.dreamkitty.com, a
Canadian online boutique, provides an ever-changing
array of Hello Kitty merchandise. A quick search of the
Internet using the search terms ‘Hello Kitty’ will reveal an
amazing array of retail sites and chat rooms devoted to
Kitty and Daniel.
To understand the Hello Kitty phenomenon in Japan,
you have to understand kawaii (‘hou Q’ in Hong Kong).
Literally, ‘kawaii’ means cute but figuratively means things
that are desired to fulfil one’s life. Kawaii culture
originated with 15 to 18 year old girls in Japan who
became the holy grail for advertisers and marketers in the
fashion, publishing and cute-little-gadgets industry. As
one industry observer stated ‘it’s not how much they
spend . . . it’s that they all buy the same things’. If an item
is hot, such as pocket pagers (called pocket bells in
Japan) or mobile phones, market penetration can reach
100% in a matter of weeks.
The core values of kawaii, however, have spread far
beyond its original members, and extended beyond Japan
throughout Asia. Hello Kitty has given birth to a mega
publishing, media and merchandising industry, including
Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Digimon, Dragonball Z and the
Power Puff Girls aimed at kids—essentially those below
the age of 18. Hello Kitty has also led the charge of
Nippon culture throughout Asia. Consumers in Hong
Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and
other Asian cultures view ‘Made in Japan’ as ‘way cool’,
embracing all things Japanese. Asian consumers,
especially young adults—a prime target for marketers—
find they can relate more to the ideals, concepts and
imagery expressed in Japanese music, movies, media,
clothing and merchandise than they can to American or
European popular culture. While American pop culture
still dominates with Hollywood films generating the
biggest box-office draws, Asians are increasingly turning
away from the ‘Baywatch’-inspired beach/body images
and family values expressed in music such as US rap
lyrics. And increasingly, they are turning to all things
Japanese.
Four out of five comic books sold in South Korea are
Japanese; Japanese pop music acts sell out in Taiwan
and Singapore and while most Taiwanese consumers
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cannot read Japanese, owning karaoke videos with lyrics
in Japanese is considered a status symbol. According to
HMV’s commercial director for Greater China and SouthEast Asia, ‘Asians like to have stars they can identify with,
instead of always looking to the West. . . . Japanese stars
modify western music to make it more suitable for Asian
listeners’. J-pop is taking over more floor space in music
shops and on commercial broadcasters such as Star TV’s
music channel. Japanese soap operas, operating on
larger production budgets than their Asian counterparts,
have a loyal Asian following that rivals those of their
American counterparts. Nippon culture provides an Asian
dimension to popular culture not understood by western
artists and designers—or marketers. Japanese animated
films draw heavily from Chinese myths and traditions,
with characters using their life energy (ki in Japanese,
qi in Chinese) and group allegiances to prevail. Compare
the American icon, Superman, who singlehandedly fights
evil with his Japanese counterpart, Ultraman, who enlists
the support of his extended family to fight evil and even
performs Buddhist funeral services for his victims. Asian
fashion designers realise that the western aesthetic of
the tall curvaceous blond does not match the dark hair,
skin and slimmer bodies of Asian consumers and design
accordingly. Japanese fashion and entertainment has
created an image of quality among Asian consumers,
with great attention to detail. Japanese marketers have
capitalized on the Asian preference for group activities
and the role of the extended family, something most
western marketers have difficulty understanding. Japan’s
focus on innovation and short product development
cycles match the lucrative youth market’s short attention
spans and mania for the newest, brightest and most
bizarre.
This fixation with all things Japanese suggests an
emerging Asian identity, replacing past adulation of all
things Western. Asian consumers are increasingly
becoming more comfortable with Japan’s values and
lifestyle with its focus on family ties, respect for elders
and the emotion of personal relationships. According to
one Sony talent scout ‘a decade ago, we Asians had no
modern image of ourselves. We had no cultural identity
to match.’ (Newsweek International, 1999).
Despite memories of wartime brutality and longstanding restrictions on Japanese imports, Japanese
culture has succeeded in penetrating Asian markets,
representing a profound generational change. While
Asia’s youth may have been raised at their elders’ knees
on stories of Japanese occupation and wartime
atrocities, it has not restricted their desire for all things
Japanese, leading to the more benign invasion of
Japanese pop culture, spearheaded by Hello Kitty. In
Taiwan, those who follow Japanese trends even have a
name: harizu or ‘Japan-crazy tribe’. Trade on the black
market of restricted products flourishes, with sales
increasing even further when restrictions are lifted. Even
South Korea is allowing some Japanese items to be
legally imported—for example, award winning films and
records—and has removed restrictions on J-pop live
performances. Japanese culture cafes and teahouses
are quickly replacing American fast food restaurants
as preferred meeting places for South Korea’s younger
generation. The joint staging of the 2002 soccer World
Cup by South Korea and Japan will likely open the doors
even further to Nippon culture. Approximately 1.5 million
Asians are studying Japanese, up 29% from 1995–1999,
all the better to understand the latest trends.
One Thai scholar believes that Thailand can learn from
Japan, what he considers the most civilised country in
Asia, while a Hong Kong scholar believes that Hong Kong
consumers admire the richness of Japanese culture,
epitomised by the tea ceremony, compared to the money
focus of Hong Kong culture. A South Korean academic,
commenting that Japanese culture now ranks second in
terms of global market share behind the United States,
believes that ‘Culture is like water. It flows from stronger
nations to weaker ones. People tend to idolise countries
that are wealthier, freer and more advanced, and in
Asia, that country is Japan’ (New York Times, 1999).
Geographic and cultural closeness, the expansion of
Asian media and television broadcasting coupled with
aggressive marketing and packaging have also fuelled
the invasion of Nippon culture.
While not to the same extent as in Asia, Nippon
culture has spread to the western world, with Hello Kitty
remaining the poster girl for all things Japanese. In 1959
French philosopher, Alexander Kojeve, wrote that ‘The
interaction of the West and Japan will result not in a
vulgarisation of Japan but rather in a Japanisation of
the West.’ (Marketing, 2000). He would likely look at
American basketball players sporting Japanese calligraphy tattoos, the popularity of brands such as
Sony (from televisions to stereos to Playstation 2), the
popularity of ‘Tokyo chic’ fashion, the translation of
obscure Japanese anime and television into English,
called ‘fansubbing’, and the never ending array of
innovative and downright bizarre products emanating
from Japan as support for his beliefs. The Internet has
facilitated an almost constant cultural exchange bridging
geographic and time boundaries between Japan and the
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rest of the world. Consider, for example, that the demand
for Pokemon was well established through Internet chat
rooms long before Nintendo America began their
promotional campaigns. And this is likely to continue as
long as innovation remains the ‘Viagra of Japan’. And its
likely Hello Kitty will still be around to welcome her
grandchildren as new ambassadors of Nippon culture, to
Asia and the world!
Questions
1 Explain the appeal of characters like Hello
Kitty to younger consumers in both Asia
and the western economies, taking note of
cultural and group influences.
2 Explain why characters like Hello Kitty appeal
to a broader audience in Asia. Do you think
that Hello Kitty will be able to generate the
same level of broad appeal in western
countries?
3 What factors have lead to the spread of
Nippon culture throughout Asia? Do you see
the spread continuing? If so, why; if not, why
not?
4 One scholar remarked that ‘Young people
can mistakenly regard Japanese culture as
their own’. [Source: ‘Cute Power’, Newsweek
International, 1999.] Discuss this from the
perspective of market segmentation and the
impact on individual Asian cultures.
5 Many believe that much of the spread of
Nippon culture has been fuelled by massive
marketing campaigns. What responsibility do
marketers have towards consumers in terms
of both the acknowledgement and preservation of individual cultures?
References
AsiaWeek, ‘Your Money: Trends: Hello Kitty’, 9 March
2001.
Entertainment Weekly, ‘Hello, again’, 4 May 2001.
Marketing, ‘Turning Japanese’, 21 September 2000.
New York Times, ‘Japan Beckons, and East Asia’s Youth
Fall in Love’, 5 December 1999.
Newsweek International, ‘Cute Power!: Asia is in love with
Japan’s pop culture’, 8 November 1999.
Stephens, J. (2000) ‘In a McKitty Frenzy’, AsiaWeek,
10 February 2000.
Time International, ‘She’s a Material Girl’, 3 May 1999.