Sellers of Western luxury brands eager to capitalize on the new wealth of Chinese consumers are showering attention on mainland students in the United States, even as sales in China falter.
The strategy is paying off for some, such as the Los Angeles Beverly Center mall, which sends buses to pick up Chinese families at the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California at the beginning of the year, when parents drop off their children, and at graduation.
"We aren't just dabbling here," said Susan Vance, the Beverly Center marketing and sponsorship director. The mall sponsors Chinese student groups with roughly 45,000 members in what she called one of its most successful marketing plans.