City Should Work On Image to Lure Shoppers

Beverly Hills needs to work to retain its glamorous image if it is to ward off competition from South Coast Plaza and other high-end shopping centers, advised participants at a recent economic conference sponsored by the .

“Beverly Hills is still up there, but you can’t take it for granted that shoppers will come to Rodeo Drive…it doesn’t work like that anymore,” Nicholas Bos, president and chief executive officer of the Americas for , told last week’s annual Economic Summit. Van Cleef, a French retailer of fine watches and jewelry, has outlets both on Rodeo Drive and in South Coast Plaza in Orange County.

Several Beverly Hills officials, including then-Mayor Barry Brucker and City Manager Jeff Kolin, were among the 300 people in the audience. Bos advised them to try to make city shopping areas more pedestrian friendly: “It is not easy to park here, there aren’t historical landmarks [to look at].”

Van Cleef’s California shops have done well with existing customers in part because the company focuses on providing personalized customer experiences.

“There has been a major shift in customer attitude and expectations over recent years, and now customers see products as an investment,” he said.

Maintaining good customer service and an upscale image will become even more important as the U.S. economy improves. Several panelists said that they expect the national and state economies to continue to improve in coming years.

“The economy is starting to pick up steam,” said moderator Christopher Thornberg, a founding partner of Beacon Economics and chief economist for the California State Controller. “The year 2012 will be a better one for you than 2011, and 2013 will be even better.”

Marc Doss, regional chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Bank, also offered a positive assessment of the economy and on United States stocks. Over the long term, the bank expects the stock market to keep rising.

"We are ripe for some sort of pull back [in the stock market], but we at Wells are bullish long term,” Dos said.

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