Hello Kitty

by Ken Belson ( ; ); Brian Bremner ( ; )

• ISBN13: 9780470820940
• ISBN10: 0470820942
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: WILEY

Summary

Now in paperback, the inside story of the cartoon kitty that became a multibillion-dollar global enterprise The only business book to offer an in-depth exploration of the Hello Kitty phenomenon, Hello Kitty tells the amazing story of how the Japanese company Sanrio bucked the odds and transformed a bulbous, all-but-featureless cartoon critter into a multibillion-dollar global business powerhouse. Readers will learn how and why the Hello Kitty brand clicked with children and adults, across cultures, and how it continues to successfully compete, internationally, with Disney and Warner Brothers. This book is packed with valuable lessons about the awesome power of branding, marketing, and licensing to capture the hearts and minds of consumers. Ken Belson (Tokyo, Japan) covers Japanese business, economics, and government policy for the New York Times. His work has also appeared in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Bloomberg News, the International Herald Tribune, and Barron's, among others. Brian Bremner (Tokyo, Japan) currently serves as Asia Economics Editor for BusinessWeek and writes a weekly column called "Eye on Japan" for BusinessWeek Online.

Author Biography

Ken Belson writes about Japanese business, economics and government policy for the New York Times in Tokyo.<br> Prior to joining The Times, he wrote about technology and finance for Business Week magazine, covering the spread of the Internet through Asia. He was editor in charge of programming at Reuters Financial Television, where he wrote and edited scripts and led a team of 35. From 1996 to 1998, he covered the Japanese economy for Bloomberg News, writing about the region's financial crisis.<br> Mr. Belson's work has also appeared in Fortune, the International Herald Tribune, Barron's, Institutional Investor, among others. He also speaks frequently on The World, a syndicated radio program produced by WGBH in Boston.<br> Mr. Belson earned an M.S. with honors from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, which he attended on a Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship. He won the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for finishing at the top of his class. He also holds a teaching certificate from Portland State University and a B.A. in history from Reed College, also in Portland, Oregon.<br> es with his wife, Harumi, in Tokyo.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Hello Kitty: The Mouthless Cat that Roared

Ch1 - Deconstructing Hello Kitty

Ch2 - History of Sanrio

Ch3 - The Cat Comes Alive

Ch4 - Kitty Goes Abroad

Ch5 - Kitty as History

Ch6 - Defiling Hello Kitty

Ch7 - Branding Hello Kitty

Ch8 - Hello Kitty and the Ideology of Pleasure