In the retail industry, where businesses must win the choices of a broad swath of consumers, the ability to discover new content, detect trends, and turn them into products is becoming increasingly important. In particular, convenience stores, which are located in neighborhoods nationwide and are the most frequently visited offline touchpoints, have become spaces that must sense and reflect consumer tastes first.
CU, a convenience store operated by BGF Retail, drew attention by collaborating with the 1st Gimcheon Kimbap Festival held in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, in Oct. last year and turning the award-winning "Osam Half-and-Half Kimbap" from the "Kimbap Cooking Contest" into a convenience store product. About 500,000 units were sold in roughly three to four months after the product launched at CU stores nationwide. CU also collaborated with the 2nd Gimcheon Kimbap Festival this year and released the winning entry, "Walnut Mayo Spicy Pork Kimbap," on the 28th of last month. About 150,000 units of this product sold in one month, continuing its popularity.
ChosunBiz met with Lee Eun-gwan, BGF Retail CX Deputy Minister, at the BGF Retail headquarters in Samseong-dong, Seoul, on the 24th of last month. Lee oversees the overall planning of various products launched by CU by reading trends and discovering IP (intellectual property) and various partners.
Lee cited "speed" and "authenticity" as CU's competitive edges. CU's top priority is to quickly move from product planning to development and launch once it spots a trend, so it can release products right when consumers want them.
For example, CU came across news on social media around late September last year that the 1st Gimcheon Kimbap Festival would be held and reached out first to Gimcheon City. With only about a month left until the festival, CU still worked closely with the city to conceive the "Kimbap Cooking Contest" content and even proposed commercialization plans.
CU is also going a step beyond simply riding trends, focusing on turning trends into long-running series and making them sustainable content. Lee said, "Like the Gimcheon Kimbap Festival, which we have been collaborating on for two years, we plan to expand long-term collaborative content with various local governments going forward." The following is a Q&A.
─ Please introduce your background and your current responsibilities.
"I joined BGF Retail in 2005 as a sales management hire and worked in the MD planning team, management planning team, and management innovation team. I served as head of CVS Lab in 2019, head of the online planning team in 2021, and have led the strategic MD team since last year. I handle a range of tasks, including reading trends and commercializing them, and planning specialized store concepts.
"Starting in Dec., I took on the role of CX (Customer Experience) Deputy Minister. I will oversee offline marketing, O4O (Online for Offline, such as delivery and pickup services), and online digital (app) marketing."
─ Product life cycles in the retail market are getting shorter these days. If you have any tips for spotting trends or decision-making criteria, what are they?
"I frequently monitor social media platforms that potential customers often use, such as Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). I also use a service that clips and sends me morning news related to designated keywords. I sometimes attend offline events hosted by other corporations to see what people are interested in.
I also talk often with my 5th-grade daughter. It's to verify whether the content we are planning is truly popular with younger generations. Products like "Dubai chocolate" and "Swedish gummies" are cases where I judged there was marketability through conversations with her and moved to commercialize them."
─ What hit product stands out in your memory?
"It's the "Night Tiramisu Cup," a collaboration with Chef Kwon Sung-jun of "Napoli Matpia." In Feb. last year, Netflix was producing a cooking show and asked us to set up a CU convenience store as a stage. The show began airing in Sept. that year, and while I was watching with interest each weekend, I saw Chef Kwon make tiramisu during a convenience store mission and felt certain, "That will take off."
Together with the development team, we even made the first sample and went straight to Chef Kwon's restaurant, and after repeated recipe tweaks, we succeeded in commercializing it in a week. It normally takes more than three months, but multiple teams rolled up their sleeves and collaborated to deliver results. In the end, about 2.5 million units of the Night Tiramisu Cup were sold, generating about 12 billion won in sales."
─ CU's collaboration with the Gimcheon Kimbap Festival also made waves. What was the background?
"In late Sept. last year, I came across news on social media that the 1st Gimcheon Kimbap Festival would be held. Since kimbap is a signature convenience store product, it caught my eye. Although only a month remained before the festival, we quickly contacted Gimcheon City.
At the time, Gimcheon City had not yet fleshed out its festival plans, and it was flustered by a surge of interest beyond expectations. So we proposed running the "Kimbap Cooking Contest" as one of the festival's programs and commercializing the winning entries, and the collaboration moved ahead swiftly."
─ This is the second collaboration with the Gimcheon Kimbap Festival this year. What changed?
"Last year, we simply released one type of kimbap using the winner's recipe. This year, we expanded the winner's recipe into various categories, including triangle kimbap and rice bowls. Starting next year, we plan to re-release all past winning-entry products during the Gimcheon Kimbap Festival season.
This year's winning recipe includes walnuts, a specialty of Gimcheon. To that end, CU worked with Gimcheon City to purchase 2 tons (t) of Gimcheon walnuts, with plans to buy more in the future. We believe we can expand a win-win structure with local governments in this way and are planning collaborations with other municipalities as well."
─ In terms of product development, what does CU especially prioritize?
"Speed. Internally, we use the phrase "CU speed." Typically, product development takes three to four months, but by then the trend may already be over when consumers encounter it. Like the "Night Tiramisu Cup," which we commercialized within a week last year, CU is building capabilities and experience to quickly commercialize trends through close collaboration across departments.
Also, rather than jumping on a fad with one-off products and pulling back, CU emphasizes authenticity through continuous serialization. The collaboration with Chef Kwon of "Napoli Matpia" did not stop at a one-off event; we rolled out a total of six product series to showcase a variety of items, including desserts, bread, and pasta."
─ What are your goals going forward?
"I believe that the moment a brand ages, customers turn away. That's why we work with the mindset that we must keep becoming trendier and faster. I want to build an "ageless CU.""