Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/513366
38 S C T / J u n e 2 0 1 5 unlikely to go to that store. "They have their list of items to buy, and they know where they want to buy it," Gervois said. "They have their program." Vance's consultants also keep in touch with tour guides through the WeChat messaging app. Many stress the importance of having a presence on Chi- nese blogging site Weibo, which has upwards of 500 million registered users and which some de- scribe as a cross between Twitter and Facebook. "Before planning a trip to the U.S., they will do their research on Weibo," Gervois said. And Vance says Weibo is useful not just for reaching those back in China but also for attracting Chinese students in Los Angeles, many of whom keep their Weibo and WeChat accounts. Kong points out that South Korea's New World department store has in excess of 1 million followers on Weibo. Not all the outreach is virtual, of course. Old- fashioned celebrity marketing is still useful too. A poster in one of the elevators at Korean department store Lotte Fitin says Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan has ridden on that lift. Perhaps unsurprisingly, after the store tagged the products she had bought on her visit, sales tripled, says Kong. Beverly Center recruited Chinese-American pro basketball player Jeremy Lin, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, to pose for photos at a Chinese New Year ceremony. As mentioned, Chinese students at the Univer- sity of California at Los Angeles and at the Univer- sity of Southern California remain an important focus for Beverly Center. "We're the exclusive shop- ping center sponsor of many of their programs, so we will host the students for, say, a back-to-school event, a shopping event where we'll have a recep- tion," said Vance. "We've also had East West Bank sponsor a speaker series where the students come in and understand how to get into the workforce — sort of like you would do with any American student, but it's really catering to those students." Analysts always say retail follows rooftops, but in this case, the rooftops may follow the retail instead: according to Vance, many of those students like Los Angeles so much that they may even move out of the tourist category altogether. "That segment, not only do they want to become Angelenos, but they eventually buy real estate here, they invest in the city," Vance said. So then, whether these Chinese customers be- come long-term customers or are merely passing through, landlords and merchants agree that they are well worth a hefty investment. SCT s t a f f a t t h e d i a n e v o n f u r s t e n b e r g s t o r e i n s a n t a m o n i c a p l a c e c h i n e s e . P h O T O : N A N C Y N E W M A N P h O T O G r A P h Y