Infiniti continued its bid to catch the attention of Chinese luxury car-buyers last week, when it held a ceremony to open its benchmark "Flagship Plus Store" in Beijing.
Shoppers to the dealership, which is in Beijing's Chaoyang District, will enter an ultra-modern structure through a courtyard decorated with glass pebbles and rippling water surfaces. According to the company's description, "The vehicle display area is fashioned in a gallery style to create an artistic environment in which customers can appreciate the beauty of Infiniti cars."
Amenities include a merchandising wall selling Infiniti Louis Vuitton luggage and Infiniti Bell & Ross watches, a private space for contemplating one's car-buying decision, and a lounge providing a "new luxury" environment. Store employees will receive hospitality training from a branch agency of All Nippon Airways.
Shiro Nakamura, Infiniti's senior vice-president and chief creative officer, said in a statement, "Infiniti's choice of China as the launch-pad for the benchmark Flagship Plus Store demonstrates our global development strategy which puts China at the Very Core. The conceptual design of the Flagship Plus Store embodies state-of-the-art architecture and materials with attentative [sic] Infiniti hospitality in a luxurious atmosphere that will not only boost Infiniti brand awareness and our service standards, but also will further improve customer satisfaction. The Flagship Plus Store concept will contribute to the development of Infiniti in China as well as in the rest of the world."
Similar stores will open this year in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
Infiniti currently has 60 dealerships in China, but sales numbers lag far behind those of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, all of which have plants in China and are free of the import taxes that drive up prices for consumers. Nevertheless, China is Infiniti's second largest market, and the Japanese carmaker seems dogged in its determination to capture a greater share of it. On Saturday, Allen Lu, head of Infiniti in China, was quoted by Reuters as saying that Infiniti intends to more than double its number of dealers in the next four years, and to begin manufacturing cars on Chinese soil in 2014.
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