 She struts the catwalk at New York fashion shows and she's best friends with Mariah Carey and Cameron Diaz.
She makes 0 million a year, but prefers relaxing at home with friends and baking cakes in her spare time. Hello Kitty, one of Japan's most famous character brands, may be heading for her 30th birthday, but the silky feline is showing no signs of her age. The cute white cat with the pink bow on her ear accounts for half of Sanrio's annual revenues of billion, and is emblazoned on over 20,000 goods - everything from toasters and handbags to adult toys - in some 40 countries. Hello Kitty even has her own theme park. But while Kitty's international profile is bigger than ever, Sanrio is battling to fight off the effects of brand fatigue and a shrinking market in Japan, where the company still gets over 80 per cent of its sales. "From cutlery and coffee cups to the toilet seat cover, almost everything in my one-room apartment was Hello Kitty, even the curtains," says Tomoko Taniai, a 25-year old Tokyoite and ex-Kitty lover. "But after a while, on TV and in magazines it was just Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. I couldn't keep up anymore." So how did a mouthless cat with no story line become an international brand sensation? "I just like her because she is like the Mona Lisa, you never know if she is smiling or if she is sad," says a fan on Kitty Realm, an Internet message board where Hello Kitty aficionados meet to purr about her lovable quirks. Unlike other popular characters such as Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh, whose images remain strictly controlled by their owners, Kitty's designers have been given largely free rein by Sanrio. She can be seen playing the piano, riding a Harley Davidson, and wearing anything from a Hawaiian Hula skirt to a traditional Korean wedding dress. Some say this adaptability is the key to her universal appeal. "There's no 'Hello Kitty - The Movie,' there's just the brand image, and in a sense Hello Kitty is the purest brand image on the market. She just is," says a New York Times reporter. With high-profile friends including singers Mariah Carey and Lisa Loeb, Hello Kitty is also attracting a whole new set of adult fans. Loeb, 35, who tells fans on her website that her growing Kitty collection includes leg warmers and a waffle maker, titled her last album "Hello Lisa" and plastered the cute cat on the cover. (Agencies) | 她在紐約時裝秀上趾高氣昂地走著貓步，她還是瑪麗亞·凱莉和卡梅隆·迪亞茲最好的朋友。 她每年賺5億美元，但她更喜歡和朋友們一起在家里消遣，空閑的時候烤烤蛋糕。她就是日本最著名的品牌之一，Hello Kitty。Hello Kitty即將迎來她的30歲生日，不過這只人見人愛的貓咪怎么看都不像30歲。 Sanrio公司每年收入10億美元，其中一半來自這只頭戴粉色蝴蝶結的可愛的白色貓咪。她的形象被印在2萬多種商品上，從烤面包機、手提包到成人玩具，遍布四十多個國家。Hello Kitty甚至有自己的主題公園。 然而，正當Hello Kitty的國際影響越來越大時，Sanrio公司開始極力應對品牌厭倦效應和日益縮水的本國市場，此時日本市場仍然占總銷售額的80％以上。 25歲的東京人谷相知子曾是一個Hello Kitty迷，她說：“我的一居室里幾乎所有的東西都有Hello Kitty，從餐具、咖啡杯到馬桶座圈套，甚至窗簾。可是一段時間過后，電視上，雜志上到處都是Kitty，Kitty，Kitty。我就不再喜歡Kitty了。” 一只沒有嘴巴，沒有故事的貓是怎樣變成國際知名品牌的呢？ 一位Kitty愛好者在Kitty王國上留言：“我就是喜歡她，因為她像蒙娜·麗莎，你永遠不會知道她是在微笑還是在難過。”Kitty王國是網絡留言板，Kitty迷們在這里聚會討論這只古怪可愛的貓咪。Kitty不像米老鼠、小熊維尼等其他流行卡通形象那樣完全由他們的所有者來控制，Sanrio公司允許設計者可以在很大程度上自由發揮。 Kitty可以彈鋼琴，騎哈雷摩托車，或者穿著各式各樣的衣服，從夏威夷草裙到傳統的朝鮮結婚禮服。有人說這種靈活性正是Kitty貓風靡全球的關鍵所在。 紐約時報記者說：“Kitty沒有電影，她只是一個品牌形象，而且在某種意義上說，Kitty純粹是市場上的一個品牌形象。她就是這樣。” Kitty有很多知名度很高的朋友，包括歌星瑪麗亞·凱莉和莉薩·洛普，因此Kitty對一批成年人也很有吸引力。35歲的洛普在她的網站上告訴歌迷們她的Kitty收藏品不斷增加，其中包括襪套和華夫餅干機。她上一部專輯取名為“你好，莉薩”，封面上還貼著可愛的Kitty。 （中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2003-10-22 01:00
