High-End Street
Not for the first timer, a broad, new avenue filled with impressive buildings has appeared almost overnight in Beijing, this time near Wangfujing. Jinbao Street, which has lofty ambitions to become Beijing's answer to Madison Avenue, is a gathering of 5-star hotels, Grade-A office buildings, car showrooms and authoritative business clubs. The powerful, elitist names of Lamborghini, Gucci and the Hong Kong Hockey Club, give a lavish, yet intimidating image. But how seriously should one take a street that has its own mission statement?
Robert Yao Ning certainly does, perhaps unsurprisingly, as he is the Marketing and Sales Director of the Fu Wah Jinbao Company. Unusually, the whole street – four office buildings, five top hotels, a hockey club, a shopping mall, several show rooms, and one hotel apartments building — is solely managed by Fu Wah, who also constructed the project. "The benefit of having one company to direct, develop and manage the whole street is clear for all to see," Robert enthused. "Our shopping center, auto car show rooms, and business clubs all target customers with similar tastes, which ensures the street has a unified standard".
This is true not just of the big boys on the block – the Pradas and Ferraris – but also the lesser-known labels, boutiques that may be like second homes to dedicated followers of fashion but less visible to Chinese eyes. The question for Fu Wah is whether Chinese consumers can accept these low-profile luxuries instead of the big logo ones. After all, what is the point of dropping a few thousand yuan on a bag if no one realizes? Robert has a sincere, if disingenuous, answer ready: "We don't aim for high profits, we look to provide a high class experience, with the cultures, histories and aesthetic designs deeply rooted in those brands," he claims. "It definitely takes time for customers to understand the underlying concepts of these brands, but we believe it will be just a couple of years."