Spacetoon India, the leading kid’s entertainment company announces its alliance with Sanrio Inc, the leading world-wide designer and distributor of character-branded products, for its popular brand- ‘Hello Kitty’. Spacetoon India is the official licensing representative of Hello Kitty in India.
Hello Kitty is the most popular character created by Sanrio in 1974 in Japan and is recognized as a ‘Fashion Icon’. It touches all facets of customer’s lives with a captivating, whimsical, and confident style that appeals to girls, teens and adults. With $5 billion in annual retail sales worldwide, Hello Kitty is one of the top five license brands in the world. The lovable white cat is available in all possible merchandise categories such as Back to school items, stationery products, beauty products, games, gifts & novelties, accessories, mobile phones, cars, airplane, maternity hospitals, musical instruments, home appliances and many more. The brand is also known amongst famous Hollywood stars such as Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey who have undertaken a bunch of unsolicited endorsements.
Speaking on the alliance, Rajiv Sangari, MD and CEO, Spacetoon- South Asia, said “We are elated to be associated with the cute and bubbly brand- Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is definitely quite popular amongst the girls in India. Since, it was not officially represented; there have been a lot of counterfeit and pirated products. Now that it is officially represented, we aim to build the brand as big and as strong as any of the world’s biggest properties on ground.”
Kunihiko Tsuji, Chief Operating Officer, Sanrio Company Ltd. said, “Hello Kitty has already made a remarkable position worldwide and loved by all age groups. Licensing continues to play a huge part in Hello Kitty’s global popularity and we see immense potential in the Indian market for the same. Though it is a challenging endeavor for us but with the help of our partner- Spacetoon India who has a reasonable understanding about the Indian licensing industry, we are confident that we will be able to attract Indian marketers and retailers.”
Sanrio has also made theme parks in Japan called Puroland and Harmonyland. Both parks have theme rides, restaurants musicals and special performances by Sanrio characters. They extend their branding to hotels, cafes right down to the appearance of the food. It has even been declared as the Child Ambassador of UNICEF in 1983 and in 2004 was named UNICEF’s Global Special Friend of Children. Japan is so fond of Hello Kitty that in 2008 the white cat was appointed Japan’s Tourism Ambassador. Some other popular characters created by Sanrio are My Melody, Tuxedosam, Patty & Jimmy, Little Twin Stars, Karoppi, Badtz-Maru, Chococat and Kuromi.