Book review: Cat that somehow got the cream
When Scarlett Johansson did the rounds of media interviews to promote her recent film, Lost in Translation, clutched to her breast was a pillow with Hello Kitty on it.
"It's, like, my security blanket," the gorgeous young star told one journalist after another.
Her choice of fashion accessory could hardly have been less appropriate. Hello Kitty is a Japanese white cat that, far from being lost in translation, has been translated on to 22,000 different products all over the world.
This cat, with a cute little bow over her left ear, is on pencils, bed linen and microwaves. She is on clothes, credit cards, cars and, most oddly of all, on a vibrator. She appeals to the under- fives, the under-12s, to teenagers and to women in their twenties and is also a gay icon. She is by turn cute, cool, ironic, subversive.
Indeed, the only groups that Hello Kitty may not resonate with are Financial Times readers - and writers. I, for one, had scarely heard of this cat until a couple of weeks ago when a new kind of Hello Kitty product fell into my hands.
This was Hello Kitty, The Remarkable Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon, written by Ken Belson and Brian Bremner, two US business journalists. It tells what must be one of the oddest branding success stories ever. Here is a cat that not only has no mouth but also has no storyline, no film, no cartoon, no book, no nothing to support her.
Yet Kitty is one of the best- and longest-selling brands ever. This year she is 30 years old and earns $500m a year for Sanrio, a gift company, and billions more for the companies it licenses to manufacture products - as well as $800m a year for the companies that sell bootleg Kitty by the truckload.
Her story goes something like this: one day there was a man called Shintaro Tsuji. Some 40 years ago, when he was about 30, he decided he did not want to be a salaryman any longer. He started selling silk, and then diversified into rubber sandals. He found he could sell them for more if he attached a flower to them. He then experimented with other cheap goods, each with a design on them. Over the past four decades Sanrio, his company, has developed 450 characters to slap on to products but only one, Hello Kitty, has been a lasting hit.
The cat, born out of a design in 1974 that Tsuji did not much like at the time, has gone on and on. Every month the company churns out 450 new Hello Kitty products and junks 450 old ones. Not only do consumers love the cat, they also seem to think it is real: the company receives letters from fans every day asking Kitty for advice on their love lives.
The business plan that produced this sensation is unscientific. There was almost no advertising, no market testing. Instead, Sanrio simply cranks the product handle, agreeing to license almost anything as long as it does not tarnish the cute and friendly image. The vibrator, oddly, passes this test; guns and alcohol do not.
How on earth did this stupid cat come to be so successful? Sadly, the authors have no idea at all. This may not be as witless as it seems, as Sanrio has no idea either. Tsuji is quoted as saying such unhelpful things as: "Kitty-chan has been loved for such a long time because friendship is something eternal."
Instead, academics, marketing experts and anthropologists are queuing up to offer their own pretentious accounts for it, but none can really explain it either. "Her plainness characterises her as a cryptic symbol waiting to be interpreted and filled in with meanings . . ." is the weak explanation offered by one.
As well as being a symbol of innocence, Hello Kitty works just as well as a whore. The best chapter in the book describes the porn websites that star Kitty and the grisly Hong Kong murder of a woman whose severed head was stuffed into a Hello Kitty doll.
It tells us about the feminists who think Hello Kitty infantilises women and encourages them to be servile, quoting their angry outpourings. "Get this fucking bow off my head," says one.
And what effect has such brand-destroying activity had on Kitty's market? None whatsoever.
While the analysis in the book is feeble, the stories are great. This is just as well, as many of them are told at least twice. There is the story of how Tsuji noticed that many of the fathers and grandfathers visiting Puroland, his Hello Kitty theme park, looked bored. So he redesigned the dancers' costumes so that more thigh and buttock was on display. The result: adult males loved Puroland too.
书评：猫咪不知何故得到奶酪
这位光彩照人的女明星告诉一个又一个记者："它就像，就像我的吉祥符。"
她选择这样一种时尚配饰是再合适不过了。凯蒂猫是一只白色的日本小猫，不仅没有在东京迷失，反而被转化成了2.2万件不同产品，畅销全球。
这是一只很可爱的小猫，左耳上扎了个蝴蝶结。她的形象出现在铅笔、床单、微波炉上，也出现在衣服上、信用卡上，最怪的是，还出现在一个振荡器上。她吸引着不到5岁的幼儿，吸引着不到12岁的儿童，吸引着十几岁的少年，吸引着20来岁的女青年，而且还是一个同性恋的偶像。她可爱，她酷，她喜嘲讽，她还颇有颠覆性。
其实，唯一不喜欢凯蒂猫的人可能就是《金融时报》的读者和作者们了。比如我就是因为几周前得到了一件新的凯蒂猫产品才认识她的，此前几乎闻所未闻。
《凯蒂猫：三丽鸥公司和亿万身价的小猫的现象》是肯o贝尔森和布瑞安o布莱纳所著。这两人都是美国的商业记者。此书讲述的是一个堪称最怪异的品牌成功故事。书中所说的这只小猫没有嘴巴，没有与之配套的故事、电影、卡通、图书，可以说要什么没有什么。
但是凯蒂却是有史以来最畅销的、最持久的品牌之一。凯蒂今年有三十岁了，每年还为礼品公司三丽鸥带来5亿美元的进帐，还为获得授权使用凯蒂形象的公司赚来几十亿的收益。还有些公司在未获授权的情况下私自使用凯蒂形象，生产着一车皮一车皮的凯蒂产品，他们的年收益也有8亿美元。
凯蒂的由来是这样的：从前有一个叫Shintaro Tsuji的人。大概是40年前吧，那时他才30岁，他决定不再继续做工薪族，于是开始卖丝绸，再接着，又开始搞多元经营，做起橡胶凉鞋的生意。他发现，如果在鞋上添朵花，就能够以更高价格把鞋子卖出去。然后，他开始倒腾其他的廉价物品，每次都在产品上添点什么设计。四十年来，他的公司三丽鸥为其产品开发了450个形象，但只有凯蒂猫长盛不衰。
这只小猫是1974年设计的，当时Tsuji并不是很喜欢，但是她却一发而不可收拾地流行起来。三丽鸥公司每个月会推出450种新的凯蒂猫产品，报废450种旧产品。消费者不仅喜欢这小猫，甚至还觉得她是真的。三丽鸥公司每天都收到猫迷们的来信，向凯蒂请教爱情生活之类问题。
然而，这一巨大成功的商业计划却是很不科学的。三丽鸥公司几乎没做任何广告和市场测试。相反，公司在产品问题上出的也是怪招，只要不给小猫可爱友好的形象抹黑，任何产品公司都答应给予使用授权。比如振荡器就能顺利通过授权；但枪支和酒类不行。
这只蠢猫究竟为何这么成功呢？遗憾的是，此书作者也不甚了了。先别怪他们无知吧，因为三丽鸥公司自己也不知道是怎么成功的。书中引述了Tsuji的话，说"凯蒂的成功是因为友谊是永恒存在的。"一样不着边际。
相反，学术人士、营销专家和人类学家却个个摩拳擦掌，都自命不凡地抢着给答案，但这些答案也都无关痛痒。有位仁兄是这样解释的："她平凡的特征说明她是个等待去发掘意义、等待去阐释的神秘象征…"，真是空洞得可以。
凯蒂猫的确可以作为单纯的象征，但一样可以作为妓女的象征。书中写得最好的那一章描述了以凯蒂为主角的色情网站，还说了一宗发生在香港的惨案：一个妇女被人杀害后，头被割了下来，塞在凯蒂猫的布玩具里。
书中还说女权主义者认为凯蒂猫将女性幼儿化，鼓励女性屈服。书中引述了女权主义者的怒吼："把该死的蝴蝶结从我头上弄走，"一位女权主义者说。
这种破坏品牌的活动对凯蒂猫市场产生了什么后果呢？什么也没有。
书中的分析不可谓不疲弱，但书里所讲述的故事却是好故事。这也合理，因为很多故事讲了至少两遍。书中说到这么个故事，说Tsuji注意到，很多到凯蒂主题公园彩虹乐园来的父亲和祖父都觉得很乏味。于是他重新设计了跳舞者的服装，让更多的大腿和屁股露出来。其结果是成人也开始爱到彩虹乐园来了。
