A Slice of Our Crib & Buying In

click--> I Spy Hello Kitty Everywhere @ 1 a.m. (without even trying)

In mine and Alana's Com495-Rhetoric & Popular Culture class we had a discussion about Hello Kitty and there was a section about Hello Kitty's projectability in the book we were assigned to read, Rob Walker's book: Buying In. The reason for Hello Kitty's success and popularity is due to her blankslate image... her expressionless face. Not only is she cute but people who are attached to her can feel what they want, feel different emotions like happy or sad with her. "...fans read a mood into her expressionless image" (155). That is the projectability of 'Hello Kitty'-- this symbol allows consumers to find individualization within Hello Kitty. Sound crazy? But this can also be said about other symbols like the Hundreds, Polo, Ecko.. "logos have meaning, and not only can that meaning be manufactured- it can be manufactured by consumers" (18). "The Hundred created a symbol that had meaning and that was cracking the Desire Code" (20) The Desire Code is what can help "[unravel] the secret dialogue between what we [consumers] buy and who we are" (xiv). why do we buy what we do?!



Another part of Walker's explanation is that we're RATIONALE THINKERS and that's part of the reason why we buy what we do, we create stories of ourselves through the things we buy and we think of reasons/excuses to get what we want and how it will represent us. (or sometimes ads trick us and make us remember things that we didn't even experience!) And that also supports why Hello Kitty is iconic, because Basically this book is attempting to explain how and why brands/products become popular in our culture and how we can't just blame ads and branding. It's also about us, our unconsciouness and our assumed "immunity to brandmarketing." So how do marketers do it, if the old commerical way is dying out?Walker talks about a marketing stunt called "murketing" (a term he made up blending the words 'marketing' & 'murky') And how this concept is what help make brands like Red Bull & Scion big success names in the business/consumer world today. Those brands kind of came out of no where right? ok ok I'm going off a tangent now, not trying to lecture... just read the book if you have time and are interested. Oh and Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell's a good one too! Ok, back to Hello Kitty.



Now i'm not going to into the history of her (which I'll add that I do know a lil somethin' somethin' cuz in my junior year of high school I did a whole presentation about Sanrio & Hello Kitty hahaha) but anyways... hate all you want, Hello Kitty is going to be part of our lives for a long time. She just grew up with us ok?

EAT IT UP!
-melissa [the M of H.A.M]