【英语中国】“中国富豪不同于其它地方的富人”

Remember James Bond's Sunseeker yacht in Casino Royale? Well, wealthy Chinese seem to - not least thanks to the efforts of Traugott Kaminski, the UK yacht-maker's China CEO. And he's enlisted a Bond-esque tactic: doing business in nightclubs.

Kaminski has spent seven years learning about rich people in China, and he claims to know a secret: the Chinese super-rich are not like rich people elsewhere.

In Europe, Kaminski sells his multi-million-pound Sunseekers over a desk, or perhaps a conference table. “In China, I make most of my sales in nightclubs,” he told the Financial Times, noting that the clients are not interested in the boring details. “They just want a status symbol, something that says ‘I am rich'.”

And being rich is cheaper that it used to be. According to Kaminski, sterling's plunge against the renminbi means yachts are 40 per cent cheaper for Chinese buyers than they were two years ago.

One winner has been Wang Jianlin, a Chinese property tycoon. His Dalian Wanda group recently picked up a new custom-built Sunseeker for ￡7m. The 33-metre yacht (pictured) is the only Predator 108 Special Edition ever made by Sunseeker.

Jianlin's flagship now has a prime berth at Shanghai's newly-opened answer to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf - the historic Shiliupu Wharf. The wharf is part high-end cruise terminal, part posh restaurant district, and part yacht parking lot. And it boasts unequalled views of Shanghai's skyscraper-strewn Pudong skyline - when it can be glimpsed through the haze, across the sludgy Huangpu River.

Don't think, however, that Sunseeker's aim is to offer bargains. On the contrary, it wants to be unashamedly expensive. Sunseeker describes the recently sold Predator as “sky-high priced” - operating on the reasonable assumption that an inflated price is a big part of the yacht's appeal.

Kaminski sprinkles some Old World's stardust too: a Sunseeker “inserts the British royal blood into the veins of Shanghai”, he lyricises, ignoring the fact that neither the Queen nor Prince Charles would be seen dead on board a Predator. The Royal Yach Britannia it is not.

The Sunseeker CEO criticises other European luxury brands for simply replicating their traditional sales and marketing strategies in China. Too many European brands try to flog unpopular models to the Chinese, he says.

Kaminski argues that selling luxury goods to the Chinese is not as easy as it looks - although, to judge for themselves, readers will have to head to a Shanghai nightclub.

记得《皇家赌场》(Casino Royale)中詹姆斯?邦德(James Bond)的圣汐(Sunseeker)游艇吗？中国的富人们似乎记得——这尤其要归功于特劳戈特?卡明斯基(Traugott Kaminski)的努力。卡明斯基是英国游艇制造商圣汐的中国区CEO，他还学会了邦德的战术：在夜总会做生意。

卡明斯基花了七年时间了解中国的富人，声称自己知道一个秘密：中国的超级富豪不同于其它地方的富人。

在欧洲，卡明斯基出售价值数百万英镑的圣汐游艇，通常是在办公桌或会议桌上。“在中国，我的大部分销售都是在夜总会做成的，”卡明斯基告诉英国《金融时报》说。他指出，中国客户对无聊的细节不感兴趣。“他们只想要一个身份地位的象征，一件表明‘我很富有'的物品。”

而成为富人的成本比过去下降了。卡明斯基表示，英镑兑人民币汇率的大幅下跌意味着，对于中国买家而言，游艇的成本比两年前低了40%。

中国房地产大亨王健林就是这样的赢家之一。他的大连万达集团最近以700万英镑购入了一艘量身定制的新圣汐游艇。这游艇长33米，是圣汐制作的唯一一艘“圣汐战舰108特别版(Predator 108 Special Edition)”游艇。

王健林的这艘旗舰如今在上海历史上著名的十六铺码头拥有一个最佳泊位。新开的十六铺码头可与旧金山渔人码头(Fisherman's Wharf)相媲美，集高端航游中心、豪华酒店区域、游艇停靠码头功能于一身。此外，它还拥有无与伦比的景观：如果能望穿弥漫的烟雾，就可以瞥见混浊的黄浦江对面摩天大楼点缀其上的浦东天际线。

不过，不要以为圣汐的目标是提供廉价货。相反，它希望这些游艇卖得出奇地贵。圣汐将最近出售给万达集团的战舰描述为“天价游艇”——基于夸张的价格是游艇吸引力重要组成部分的合理假设。

卡明斯基还播洒了一些“旧世界”的星尘：他抒情地说道，圣汐“向上海的血管里注入了英国皇家血液”。但他忽视了一个事实，无论是英国女王还是查尔斯王子(Prince Charles)，都绝不会登上战舰108，因为它不是皇家游艇“大不列颠号”(Royal Yacht Britannia)。

卡明斯基批评其它欧洲奢侈品牌一味效仿在中国的传统销售与营销策略。他表示，太多欧洲品牌都在试图将不流行的款式塞给中国人。

卡明斯基表示，将奢侈品出售给中国人并不像看上去那么容易。不过，要自己作出判断，读者们一定要去上海的夜总会转转。

译者/何黎