Book excerpt: Now in paperback, the inside story of the cartoon kitty that became a multibillion-dollar global enterprise The only business book to offer an in-depth exploration of the Hello Kitty phenomenon, Hello Kitty tells the amazing story of how the Japanese company Sanrio bucked the odds and transformed a bulbous, all-but-featureless cartoon critter into a multibillion-dollar global business powerhouse. Readers will learn how and why the Hello Kitty brand clicked with children and adults, across cultures, and how it continues to successfully compete, internationally, with Disney and Warner Brothers. This book is packed with valuable lessons about the awesome power of branding, marketing, and licensing to capture the hearts and minds of consumers. Ken Belson (Tokyo, Japan) covers Japanese business, economics, and government policy for the New York Times. His work has also appeared in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Bloomberg News, the International Herald Tribune, and Barron's, among others. Brian Bremner (Tokyo, Japan) currently serves as Asia Economics Editor for BusinessWeek and writes a weekly column called "Eye on Japan" for BusinessWeek Online.