Introduction of CheongKwanJang brand, HUB, changes in customers’ value, space concept, space function. Korea Ginseng Corporation (KGC) launched “CheongKwanJang HUB”, one stop shopping space for the highly health conscious customers. The HUB is a complex store designed to provide the health and beauty products in one place for customers’ convenience, including CheongKwanJang, DONGINBI, and Good base products. Beyond the red ginseng company, the store provides counseling service to recommend the product along with health counseling while offering an opportunity to experience a variety of red ginseng products.

With 118 years of history, CheongKwanJang has a variety of red ginseng products with its own principles and grows them only in the contracted farm. The product is mainly made of Korean red ginseng grown for 6 years and produced through rigorous quality control process including 7 times of more than 290 safety tests. CheongKwanJang HUB store provides products made of the ginseng grown as listening to sounds of water, wind, and footprints, and is designed to shape ‘Baesanimsoo’ symbolizing the perfect location in Korea. “Baesanimsoo” means the ideal placement of building shown in Feng-Shui theory, which has backdrop of mountain and faces water in front.

Wooden materials are used in the interior and exterior of the space to make it look harmonized, and the arch that wraps the mountain-shaped ceiling and connotes the meaning of giving life to the product. Bronze materials give the unity as a whole while making the product look good. Inside the store, the arrangement reflects changes in the consumer’s awareness of healthy foods. It is found that consumers want ‘Luxury’ for even ‘Health’ based on the trend of valuable consumption-oriented “Small Luxury”. With growing interests in the heath, the trend of ‘Small Luxury’ is extended to ‘Healthy Luxury (valuable consumption for health)’.

The overall layout is centralized so that consumers and sellers can meet as a counselee and a counselor, considering that the sales through counseling service are the key value at the store. It is also designed to spend longer time with consumers by providing a counseling, recommending the product, and introducing various products at the store. The store has been changed from the typical display sales into counseling and recommendation-based sales. The counselor’s recommendation process was also designed as an important behavior factor.

As a design strategy for the customer’s first sight at the store, a variety of services including best-selling products and test items are arranged in the center so as to give a strong impression. In the center table, cosmetic brand products are arranged for customer’s testing. Once a customer sits at the table, a counselor serves a ginseng tea and recommends the best-selling products while spinning the tower-shaped fixture. In the wall fixture, only one product is displayed per item to present a neat impression to the consumer. The product is stored inside the showcase door, which intends to make consumers perceived of the act of taking precious items.

“CheongKwanJang HUB” has the system which provides the one-stop service for each customer by recommending the personalized product, and increases the work efficiency for staff in terms of product capacity and search. Thus, the design emphasizes the concept for the actual behavior rather than only style. As if you counsel your symptom with a pharmacist and receive an advice about various products, you will get a recommendation for an appropriate product based on purchase purpose, condition, and symptom looking at the iPad. While counseling, customers can also relax and drink red ginseng drinks.

Design: Betwin Space Design
Photography: Yong-joon Choi