Western brands keen to cash in on students

Potentially lucrative niche market is focus of attention for top-name firms

Sellers of Western luxury brands eager to capitalize on the new wealth of Chinese consumers are showering attention on 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.