Instruction: Read the following case and answer all questions. HELLO KITTY Hello
ID: 328896 • Letter: I
Question
Instruction: Read the following case and answer all questions. HELLO KITTY Hello Kitty first appeared on a small purse in 1974. She is a third grader, weighs about the equivalent of three apples, and lives with her parents and twin sister, Mimmy, in London. Millions of teenagers worldwide, especially females, are crazy about this cat. Even working women cannot resist her The man behind Hello Kitty is Shintaro Tsuji, founder of Sanrio Co. Ltd, maker of Hello Kitty. Orphaned at the age of 13, Tsuji's lonely childhood taught him the importance of having someone or something for "heart-to-heart communication. He strongly believed that for true happiness, one needs to have a good friend. Thus, he decided to make a living out of fostering friendship making character toys to be given away as gifts. The philosophy of making others happy has been the core of Sanrio's business. The original Kitty was dressed in a romper suit with a red bow above her left ear. Now, she comes in various looks with different bows and flower in her ear. There is Angel Kitty with wings, Bee Kitty in yellovw and black stripes, and even Kimono Kitty. In fact the motivating force behind the perpetual support from fans is the unique design of the different Hello Kitty dolls, which Sanrio invents continuously. This has turned the Hello Kitty into a collectible series When creating new designs, the design team is always mindful of retaining the same expressionless Kitty as its prototype. Kitty's face is intentionally left blank to enable to become whatever people want her to be. Without the mouth, Kitty acts as a canvas which people can personalize by projecting their feelings onto the character - they can be happy or sad with Hello Kitty, and internalize Kitty into their lives, true to Tsuji's philosophy of having a friend for social communications. To a little girl, Kitty is a friend of a similar age. To a high-school girl, Kitty can be a special friend. It is the Zen like calmness and faceless expression that make it appealing across age groups and markets. Previously, Hello Kitty targeted only children. Now it has three segments- kids teenagers, and women, the latter being an eccentric drawn to products that lookedExplanation / Answer
1. Market segmentation is the process of diving potential customers in the market into different groups. This is useful to concentrate on each group of customers instead of individual one. This is a toy company, initially it targeted only children but this kind of product liked by females based on this concept. Every person needs a good friend to share their happiness, toys are very helpful to reduce sadness and fill happiness, generally female really attracted with toys. They are showing interest to give toy gifts to someone. Based on these aspects this company divides it market into different segments.
2. this company target market are female, previously this company concentrates on children only but later it divides its target market into 3 categories, those are children , teenagers and women.
3. This business wants to fill happiness in its customers; generally every person needs a good friend to share his happiness and sadness. Based on this concept Shintaro Tsuji , founder of this company designed this toy, this toy is very useful to express one’s happiness and friendship with other person even this toy has no expression. This company gives wonderful value to its customer’s happiness. By seeing this product one can understand the importance of friendship and love
4. Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, love and belonging need required these value and satisfaction
5. It expands its market share by using theme parks which located in Puroland and Harmony land. It offers cosmetics to teenagers and jewelry kits, bags, i Phone wallets. It has Hello Kitty lab in Hong Kong to attract the women who aged between 18 to 35 years.
6. trends are not consist, people mind set always changes, after some period this company loose profits because sales falls down. The reason for this fall down is changes in the market, after some period many new products entered into the market like Mickey Mouse, this Hello kitty has no mouth, so that it cannot used in animation pictures. Other companies use their toys in animated pictures as characters. Because of these reasons this company loses its profits