The Hello Kitty story: how Sanrio went from silk to sandals to global superstar of merchandising
- Hello Kitty was created in 1974, and 30 years later, was worth US$8 billion a year
- Her distinctive face can be seen on everything, from clocks to water dispensers
The postman who delivers to Lucy Fowler is bemused – and amused – at the sheer amount of mail bearing exotic foreign stamps that she receives virtually every day of the week. Sometimes the package is small and only contains a pen or a key ring, Fowler says, but on other days the postman has to ring the doorbell as the parcel is too big to fit through the letterbox. A rolled-up rug. A kettle. A full set of tea cups and saucers. Pillows.
Everything that the postman brings has one thing in common. They all bear the simple outline of a cat with button eyes, a yellow nose and a pink bow in her hair.
To Fowler, she is irresistible. “I first saw Hello Kitty when I was around 19 years old, when my younger sister and I got a clock for our shared room,” she recalls. “There is a 10-year age gap between us so our tastes were very different, but as soon as we saw it we both knew that we wanted the clock with Hello Kitty sitting in a big cup with a lemon slice.”