J. C. Penney Case

In the past, JCP had, on average, one price campaign every day. The stores were full of sale signs and retail rise was getting out of control. JCP partnered with numerous exclusive collaborations which was hoped to bring about an expansion for the firm. However, due to the economic slump, the oversaturation of the market, and an expected lack of quality in the goods from the consumer perspective, JCPenney’s success was degrading in contrast to its competitors. (Sloan, 2010).

J.C. Penney is a retail outlet that operates in many locations globally. It deals with product lines such as clothing, footwear, beauty products, electronics, and jewelry. There are several changes that have taken place in the macro environment that promises to increase the fortunes of the company. The advertisement in technology is one single important factor that has increased the performance of the business (Ali, 2007). The company has an elaborate website through which it uses to tap the online market. In fact, thirty percent of the company’s revenue comes from the website.

2) JC Penney's most immediate goal is to maintain its present customer base and to attract new clients. They can do so by introducing higher-scale brands to their stores in order to attract another category of customers, in other words, customers who are drawn to premium brands. Therefore, JC Penney's brand image will be enhanced; its reputation will be improved. Introducing premium products, and attracting customers who have higher purchasing power will bring in higher revenues to the company.

Historically, J. C. Penney’s strength had been communicating the relationship between quality and value, in a way that the customer could understand. J. C. Penney lost this connection when we

Penney company is a holding company started in the year 1902 by James Cash Penney. Since its foundation, J.C. Penney company has enjoyed a series of tremendous growth which is evident from its big number of shares (306,883,865) of common stock outstanding as well as depressions in its business cycles. The company has done a wide range of investments in different ways, for example, by placing separate stores and boutique-like spaces within the larger department store (Salil R. Virkar J. C. PENNEY COMPANY, INC). This has lured many different consumers and investors to the business. Also through these investments, it has been able to build stronger financial muscles which would enable it regain its strength and hopefully keep it on its toes during

J.C. Penny is century old name in retailing, trying to reinvent itself by modernizing its plummeting departmental store business. Company’s chain of 1100 Stores based in US and Puerto Rico, were losing ground to Macy’s and Kohl’s its biggest competitors. Once one of the nation's top catalog operators, Penney has exited the catalog business and is expanding its e-commerce presence. The company has seen a continuous sales decline over the past five years. In fiscal 2014 (ended January), revenue fell 9% to $11.9 billion, versus $13 billion in fiscal 2013, due to a plunge in comparable-store sales. The company still felt the lingering sting related to an ill-fated strategy embarked on under the previous leadership of Ron Johnson (who was fired as CEO during 2013). The strategy -- included eliminating sales and instead offering everyday low prices -- didn't sit well with Penney customers, who increasingly have been shopping elsewhere. In the aftermath of the disastrous financial results, the company has been working to rebuild itself to its former glory.

J.C. Penney is a company involved in operating retail stores across the United Sates and Puerto Rico. These stores sell a range of apparel, as well as home furnishings, accessories, foot wear, handbags, jewelry, and other products. In addition to products, J.C. Penney provides services such as salons, photography, custom decorating, and florists. Customers are able to shop and access the products and services in stores or online.

As one of the major retailers in the United States, JCPenney has 1,104 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico as of February 2, 2013. The key success of its business is tremendously depending on the sales performance. However, the retail business is highly competitive, with low barriers to entry and low profit margin. Due to large sales plunge in 2012, the company is in financial trouble. The thorough analysis of JCPenney’s financial statements is vital to judge the future performance of its business.

The results of the first two quarters are caused, for the most part, by problems with the execution. While there are problems with the strategy, I believe Johnson had a good long term vision for the company and there were structural changes in JC Penney’s strategy required for the company to survive. I’ve mentioned a few problems with the strategy (unclear target market, not leveraging resources, not becoming a market oriented company), but now I will discuss problems with the execution, where most of the actions taken where ineffective at executing the strategy.

The alternatives highlighted above will likely put an end to JCP’s managerial and technological issues. These alternatives are recommended based on the company’s strengths and opportunities, and in large part, based on the specific issues affecting the retailer. All these alternatives are could be realized at little or no cost. The alternatives however require that JCP starts thinking out of the box. For example, it will cost little or no money for this giant to hunt for a an experienced CEO. Instead of shopping around for a ‘ready made’ CEO, if JC Penny has it own standards of doing business, it only need to promote one of its top experienced managers to run the company.

First, the $650B size of the US grocery market was a major opportunity; only a small percentage of this market would be required for a company to have significant profits. Second, both web-purchases and, in particular, online grocery consumer purchases were predicted to increase. The $16.8B in online grocery sales was predicted to represent 1 out of every 5 dollars spent online by 2004 (see figure 1). Third, customer data opportunities were emerging through all online retailers. Webvan's ability to leverage customer purchasing information and its ability to share this data with its suppliers constituted an advantage over traditional grocery competitors. Finally, capital markets in the late 1990s were eagerly funding start up companies.

J.C. Penney is one of the leading retailers in the United States gives, and therefore, has a well known name and band of loyal customers. A recent report on J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc. states strengths that JC Penney Co. has compared to competing corporations. J.C. Penney’s focuses on customer service to keep them coming back. They developed a training focusing on putting the customer first. The training is enhancing the Associate Engagement scores which continue to translate into enhanced customer service. They provide a JCP Rewards loyalty program, which has over 4 million customers. They believe that outstanding customer service will drive customers to spend more and shop more often than an average customer. They also have private and exclusive brands such as Sephora and American Living. In 2008 private and exclusive brands together accounted for approximately 50 percent of their annual sales – the highest penetration in private and exclusive

JC Penney, a struggling company in 2011, attempted to turn things around by hiring Ron Johnson but found themselves much worse off at his exit 17 months later (Tuttle, 2013). Johnson created large amounts of debt in order to begin reinventing the look and feel of JC Penney (Townsend, 2015). It is claimed that Johnson was hired due to the great success he had with previous ventures (Townsend, 2015) but that success may have been a large contributor to stunning failure. It has been said that Johnson claimed in 2015 that success would have resulted if JC Penney had continued to follow his vision (Townsend, 2015). This belief may seem unrealistic but displays a continued tendency to gravitate to early preferences based in emotion (McShane & Von Glinow, 2015).

A) .Evaluating Wal-marts situation in terms of the SWOT Analysis, where will view where its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in terms of its place in the retail industry. Wal-mart being such a dominant force has elements which plot and are willing to take it down given the chance. Lets look at what makes wal-mart be such a dominant force and would break wal-marts dominance both here and globally by analyzing its position in terms of the SWOT, Lets start by looking at the first part of the SWOT analysis which is the strength of the company.

This is a SWOT analysis of Target Corporation and K-Mart, to be followed by a cross-case analysis of the two mini cases. The success and failure in these cases is based on volume of sales and recognition of the two companies.