In the textbooks, they will tell you that branding can have a profound impact on consumer perception, drive loyalty, and ultimately benefit the bottom line. I witnessed a real-time demonstration of these marketing fundamentals during the release of the Lumin EV “Hello Kitty” at the Bangkok International Motor Show last week.
It's hard not to applaud the bold nature of electric vehicle brand Lumin working with “Hello Kitty” to produce an automobile, because the values of the two brands are so congruent and relevant.
The Lumin EV is a small 36 kW (48 hp) electric city car that can accommodate four people. Although she's as cute as a car can be, she comes from the toughest game in town: she managed to differentiate herself from a battalion. of similar Chinese electric vehicles and came out ready to break into the global market.
![After two years on the Chinese market, the Lumin electric car is now launched in Thailand](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/bb3b5c2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1546+0+0/resize/1192x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F55%2F01%2Ff50b6acf452e8e39bccb12e80aae%2Fhero-shot-non-branded.jpg)
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In its standard form, the Lumin has been on sale in the Chinese domestic market for exactly two years, having recorded sales of around 10,000 units per month for around a quarter of a million units shipped to date.
The Lumen has never quite managed to crack the monthly list of China's top 10 best-selling cars, but it has been consistently close every month, putting it among the world's best-selling models every month in over the last two years. The point that interested me most in the literature was that three out of four Chinese buyers were women.
The launch of the Lumin in Thailand was the first outside of China, so a special hero model was produced and big things were hoped for with the addition of Hello Kitty branding at 2,000 units to kick off sales in Thailand.
![You didn't have to look long to realize that Hello Kitty Lumen really appeals to the female of the species, as well as children.](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/e66d04e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1280+0+0/resize/1440x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F10%2F49%2Fafe5e5c04e15ac9b713c728d758e%2Fcomposite-kids-gals-2.jpg)
BIMS/Changan/New Atlas
In a world where omnipresent entertainment fosters disharmony and division, adorable Kitty has been promoting friendship, inclusiveness and kindness on school backpacks and baby hats for 50 years. The car's environmentally friendly intent certainly fits with that, but the addition of the brand certainly focuses the mind on how it does its job.
With a simple exterior message on the car, everything becomes as coherent as ever: a respectful and friendly cocar with minimal damage to the environment.
“Hello Kitty” is such a simple yet powerful brand that in 1983, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) named her (Kitty White – Kitty is actually a little girl, not a cat) an ambassador for children in the United States.
In 1994, UNICEF reappointed her as children's ambassador in her native Japan. When Hello Kitty celebrated her 30th birthday in 2004, she was actually the spokesperson for UNICEF in an advocacy program to raise awareness in developing countries about gender discrimination in schools. There are 10 million more girls than boys who are not in school worldwide.
Just two years ago (2022), Kitty created a new product line at the United Nations Bookstore to celebrate her commitment to the UNICEF Sustainable Development Goals.
![Hello Kitty's brand values of love, inclusion, kindness and nurturing have resonated with children and mothers for 50 years. Kitty is a virtual companion who has always delivered a responsible message to the children of the world. The Hello Kitty skin fits very well on an adorable, budget-friendly electric vehicle.](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/d64541f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2048x1366+0+0/resize/1439x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F88%2Ff1%2Ff1ff03ec41b981cd5a4778c7ae6e%2F435002959-122167075802033595-6834155535143307909-n.jpg)
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This provenance of the brand represents serious credibility in the world of electric vehicles for the electric vehicle buyer. This goes beyond good corporate citizenship. What started as a trademark apparently morphed into a modern personification of the “peace” symbol that came to mean something else in the 1960s.
You can find many stories about the dizzying growth of the “Hello Kitty” brand over the past 50 years, but statistics show that there are now hundreds of millions of loyal followers, and probably many more, who have had a direct contact with the brand as a child or having children, that over time it has also become an adult brand.
You may have worn the logo as a child. It turns a parka or pair of gloves that you wouldn't otherwise wear into a deeply loved companion that you will wear, and the wide availability of any children's clothing product bearing the logo has made it a children's designer brand, which to his turn increased the popularity.
![Donald Duck isn't the logical brand ambassador you might think of for a scooter, but the limited edition Donald Duck 90th Birthday Edition is sold out anyway.](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/840d0ec/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1280+0+0/resize/1440x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F36%2Fef%2F4a9c5b1943eea889ee83274eadb5%2F67-03-27-thai-honda-by-boyd00002.jpg)
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Beyond that, given Kitty's association with love, kindness, and caring, it's likely that you've received one or more Kitty-branded products and spent a lot of time with your Kitty lunch box, your Kitty cushion, or other familiar, safe objects that keep you company. .
Kitty is a companion who has always delivered a responsible message to the children of the world. When a Taiwanese hospital wanted to create a safe space for children, they discovered that Hello Kitty-branded rooms fit the bill. There are now Hello Kitty hotel rooms for people traveling with children and Hello Kitty theme parks.
For manufacturers of products aimed at children and women, a three percent licensing fee adds only a minimal amount to the cost of getting a product to the point of sale, but makes no sense given the additional sales and scale they bring.
Hello Kitty's licensing fees topped $8 billion last year. The standard 3% licensing fee means the logo sold $267 billion worth of goods and services to generate that cash flow.
That's why there are over 50,000 different “Hello Kitty” licensed products for sale all over the world, and many more are pirating their designs to make their products more valuable.
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But until now, a whole three percent was far too rich for the car market.
Three percent is an obese margin in the automotive industry, so despite half a century of success in turning everything it touched into gold, no manufacturer has ever produced a “Hello Kitty” automobile.
It’s Lumin (Changan) whose covers are torn off for the first time.
Not surprisingly, the “Hello Kitty” branding on a car that is ultra-cute to begin with, had a striking impact on children and women, with many men watching quietly in deep contemplation. I'm sure everyone I saw gathering around the car already had a relationship with the brand…and therefore the car.
I spotted the Lumin “Hello Kitty” model at the Changan stand at the Bangkok Motor Show last week and was initially attracted by the crowd it had gathered.
I had been in the living room for an hour when I saw the “Hello Kitty” car, but I had seen many limited editions before.
![THE "angry Birds" BOMA EV](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/cfc8de8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4425x2950+0+0/resize/1440x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7e%2F08%2F2a0044d84605b8b3c9a7eac1a612%2Fimg-4277.jpg)
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There was an “Angry Birds” mini-car, the “Donald Duck 90”.th “anniversary”, the Yamaha Filo and matching “Star Wars” Monkey bikes. With each one, I walked around it and made a mental note to come back when I had time to take unobstructed photos…once the herd had thinned out.
At the end of my first pass through the entire show, I listed what I needed to come back to, and it was all the special editions…and the herd never thinned around the limited editions.
They're all identical to the standard model, except for the skin-deep embellishments, so they really don't cost that much more to make, but the special editions got ALL the attention at the show, and last counting, they had all been sold, at a premium.
The auto industry learned the trick of limited editions a few decades ago, realizing that people will pay more for something they can relate to, that makes them feel special, that was built to their tastes and values , which partnered with their iconic brand… all of these tribal groups could be targeted successfully enough with a limited edition that it would be worth repeating over and over again.
Today, special editions are proliferating across the mobility sector and the era of mass customization is beginning to dawn.
The figures that will prove the success of Hello Kitty Lumin are not yet written, since its destiny will be determined by its performance in the international markets in which it begins to enter in 2024 and 2025, and by its ability to become the mainstay of a factory giant production plant in the Philippines which will be commissioned in 2025.
So the immediate sale of a limited edition of 2,000 automobiles in a developing market could easily be lost in the figures published daily by the global automobile industry, but it was much more significant than that.
The Hello Kitty brand's resonance with women and children was so evident that it really highlighted the compelling character of the car. Four seats, capable of respecting highway speed limits, a solid structure in every respect, mobility much more achievable than ever… and an old family friend.
Research shows that women have long been the key decision-makers in the majority of auto purchases, and with kids to boot, good luck casting that third vote if you're a family man.
Hello Kitty Lumin's resonance with the target audience was so powerful that it warranted removing the “limited edition” label and replacing it with the words “special edition.”
Cars that look like this are good for the mental health of the world – they should be made available more freely.
The Changan line is expected to enter America in the coming years. A Hello Kitty Lumin might be closer than you think.