Now over forty years later, Tsuji is still sharing gifts and smiles as Chairman at Sanrio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo but its reach is worldwide with distribution throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. And the ubiquitous little cat is truly pervasive. One can be trekking through Java, miles away from a television or automobile and spot schoolgirls skipping through the rice paddies on their way home from school with little Hello Kitty satchels hanging from their backs and pencil holders strapped to their belts.

To say that Asians are mad for Sanrio products is to understate the near fanatical devotion to the cartoon characters. Sanrio has its own theme park in Tokyo, which is a huge success among the Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese. What's more, Hello Kitty products are collectibles and have built up quite a value over the last couple decades. Some items are valued at thousands of dollars - not that anyone's selling. And Sanrio is clever in its marketing efforts. There is always a new must-have product. "Old" items are moved off the shelf every six months or so and replaced with new products to keep the public interested and the pressure on the purchaser to add to the collection. And it's not just a fad. The brand endures among young and old alike.

The success of the brand across generations may be largely due to the appeal of its simple image. The characters used to design the products are sparse line drawings with very little detail. For instance, a red ribbon easily identifies Hello Kitty as a girl and distinguishes her from her boyfriend Dear Daniel, but otherwise, they are both plain cats with no mouths.

Because of these simple illustrations, the characters never feel goofy or sentimental like Disney characters. Perhaps this explains the massive appeal of the characters, even among adults. Children who grew up with the characters are now in their 20s and are buying more adult-oriented objects, branded by the same childhood friends.

Further, although the brand is tied directly to personalities, they are not personalities that could prove confining or inappropriate since the control always remains in the hands of Sanrio. A cartoon character can be discarded if it loses appeal or brought back into line if it strays from the brand values. If the company decides to discontinue a character, it can always be brought back later on as a nostalgia item. A real live human brand is not so easy to control.

Robin D. Rusch lives and works in New York City.