China News Service Client, Beijing, June 26th (Zuo Yukun) "Oval face, long beard, no mouth, a pink bow on the ear, weight equal to the weight of three apples, like to play in the forest , Practice playing the piano and baking cookies."
Hello Kitty, a classic cartoon image born in 1974, is now close to the "year of destiny". The 92-year-old "Father of Hello Kitty" will also step down recently, taking over the new head of the Hello Kitty family as his 31-year-old grandson.
There is no sorrow in the fairy tale world. But in real life, the creators of the fairy tale world are facing many troubles.
Data Map: Hello Kitty Shanghai Beach Theme Pavilion. China News Service reporter Zhang Hengwei
Hello Kitty parent company Sanrio announces a change of coaching
Not long after Father's Day, the love of countless girls-Hello Kitty, its "daddy" is about to retire.
According to Japan’s Sankei Shimbun, Japanese toy and gift company Sanrio said in a statement recently that the company’s founder, 92-year-old Tsuji Nobuo, known as the “father of Hello Kitty”, will be on July 1. Retiring as CEO, his 31-year-old grandson Tsuji Bonbon will succeed him.
Tsujiro Shintaro was a civil servant in Yamanashi Prefecture when he was young. He resigned and started his own business in 1960, and established the "Yamanashi Silk Center Co., Ltd." to operate the silk business. Later, he realized that products with "cute" design would be hot, and in 1973 the company was renamed "Sanrio Co., Ltd.". In 1974, the lovely representative character Hello Kitty was born and became the iconic cartoon image of Japan.
So far, more than 450 cartoon characters have been born under the Sanrio brand, forming a number of businesses such as gift commodity planning and sales, IP operations, licensing services, theme parks and so on.
Products around Sanrio. Photo by Zuo Yukun
Tsujiro Shintaro's "stick" is the first time Sanrio has ushered in a top-level leadership exchange since its establishment 60 years ago. The 92-year-old Tsuji Shintaro has a very old age, and it is also common sense to surrender the management rights of the Sanrio company he founded with his own hands. He will then assume the position of chairman.
The reason why "the grandchildren are not passed down" is because in November 2013, the first-ranked leader of Sanrio’s president, Tsuyoshi Taro, the eldest son of Tsuji Shintaro, suddenly died of acute heart failure during a business trip in Los Angeles. 61 years old. Because of this accident, Sanrio's stock price once fell by more than half.
Throughout the family heirs, it is undoubtedly the best choice to pass on from generation to generation.
According to Japanese media reports, the 15-year-old successor younger than Hello Kitty graduated from Keio University in Japan and resigned in 2014 to return to work in the family company Sanrio. He has worked in the planning department and marketing department. Departmental appointments. After deeply understanding the company's business and participating in it, he carried the banner of Sanrio.
Performance has declined for six consecutive years
Not long ago, the results of the annual "Sanrio Star Popularity Appraisal" were released, and the three "Wang Xingren" of the big ear dog, pudding dog and Pachcha dog dominated the top three, while the "old senior" Hello Kitty won the championship last year. Fell to fifth place.
As a classic cartoon image company, Sanrio holds a popular selection every year, and develops related products to attract fans to buy. It is reported that this year's 2020 Sanrio All Meng Chong pet contest received a total of 14.55 million votes from enthusiastic fans.
Sanrio star popularity selection results. Image source: Weibo@HelloKitty_SanrioOfficial
In sharp contrast to the popularity of the selection, Sanrio's sales performance is not ideal.
According to Sanrio's 2019 financial report released recently, the company's 2019 turnover was 55.261 billion yen (equivalent to approximately RMB 3.645 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 6.5%; operating profit was 2.106 billion yen (equivalent to approximately RMB 139 million), year-on-year 56% decline; net profit was only 191 million yen (equivalent to about RMB 13 million), a year-on-year decrease of 95.1%.
The slump in performance did not happen overnight. In fact, after Sanrio's performance peaked in FY2013, it has reduced revenue and profits for six consecutive years. Especially in the past four years, the company's financial data showed a rapid decline.
In this regard, Sanrio said that the reasons for the unsatisfactory performance and poor revenue performance were mainly due to the sluggish overseas business, the shrinking of domestic authorized business revenue and profits, and the loss of the theme park due to the epidemic.
Overseas business and authorized business in Japan are important revenue sources for Sanrio, and behind the theme park business is huge operation and maintenance costs. Since the beginning of this year, the continuous fermentation of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has caused Sanrio to face more severe revenue pressure. Sanrio expects that its performance in the first half of 2020 will continue to decline.
Joint names are frequent, the Chinese market is still an important support
"The joint name of Mingchuangyoupin and Sanrio is new! The Sanrio girl punches me!"
On various social software, you can often see the Sanrio series products shared by netizens. In recent years, Sanrio's efforts in the layout of the Chinese market are not too small.
Sanrio's financial report shows that the operating profit in the Chinese mainland market made the most significant contribution in 2019, reaching 2.654 billion yen (equivalent to approximately 175 million yuan); followed by the Hong Kong market in China, reaching 1.55 billion yen (equivalent to RMB) (About 100 million yuan); the third is the Chinese Taiwan market, reaching 802 million yen (equivalent to about 53 million yuan). It can be said that the Chinese market has supported Sanrio's overseas market and even the overall turnover.
Sanrio also understands the importance of the Chinese market and stated in its 2020 plan that it will vigorously develop and expand the Chinese market.
Sanrio series blind box sold by Mingchuangyoupin. Photo by Zuo Yukun
Among them, the launch of joint products is an important way of Sanrio. Sanrio's official website shows that it has gradually opened up the authorization of various characters in China and other regions, including a variety of tangible and intangible products, brand endorsement and cooperation, various market activities, and large and small parks, restaurants, entertainment, education and health.
From foods represented by McDonald's and Gottivan, to daily necessities represented by Mingyou, Zara, and beauty makeup represented by Sephora and Perfect Diary, Sanrio's lovely cartoon image can be described as permeating life Every aspect.
Relying on the industry status of each mature brand, "sweeping presence" in various fields to gradually open up the reputation-the business logic behind the Sanrio joint name is not difficult, but from "selling cute" to "selling" cute is not so simple.
When the cute encounters the "middle-age crisis", can it ride the wind and waves?
A Starbucks cat claw cup fried to more than 10 times the original price is still madly robbed. A "world-class cute" Pikachu can absorb $90 billion from a movie and a set of Line Friends images can be earned by selling emoticons for one year. 270 million US dollars... From one phenomenon after another of the phenomenal Internet celebrities and anime explosions, it is not difficult to see the huge potential of the "moe economy".
The silly image has shortened the distance to consumers, inspiring a sense of closeness and protection in human genes. But by contrast, in addition to the visual identity of appearance, how many adults are willing to penetrate the cartoon image into their daily lives and pay for it for a long time?
"Hello Kitty's female consumers are generally loyal to the brand when they are 5 to 12 years old, and once they enter puberty, they will leave because of the yearning for mature mentality." Zhong Ziwei, former general manager of Sanrio China, told the media.
"But many people will buy Hello Kitty's pajamas and bed sheets when they first leave home and move into university dorms at the age of 18, because at this time they will have a feeling that they don't want to grow up. When they are 35, they get married and have children, This cycle is recycled on their daughters." Zhong Ziwei believes that this is Hello Kitty's unique brand life cycle, and perhaps also the key to "Meng" wanting to maintain long-term vitality.
The resignation of the father of Hello Kitty proclaimed the end of the era of Tsujiro Taro. Can the new successor Tsuji Bonbon continue to "ride the wind and waves" with Hello Kitty, 46? (Finish)