Jcpenney Case Study Essay

1) Should Wal-Mart be expected to protect small businesses in the communities within which it operates?

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.

The industry we have chosen is the department store-retail industry. Within this industry, we have chosen the department stores of JCPenney and Macy’s. We find this industry, as well as these two companies, interesting from a strategic perspective. JCPenney has recently undergone a massive strategic restructuring in regards to its pricing, brand offerings, and store layout, pushing it away from the typical department store strategy of discounts and coupons. Its new strategy has become much closer to Wal-Mart’s strategy of every day low prices. Macy’s, on the other hand, has restructured with a push from the economic

CEO Johnson’s time with JC Penney’s was short lived and only lasted 17 months. The three core processes of business that he ignored was People, Strategy, and Operations. From the people aspect, he missed several key details. Johnson just assumed that people thought JC Penney’s prices were too high, so he lowered them and quit having sells (Tuttle, 2013). He also drove customers that had been shopping there for years away. With too many changes happening at one time, loyal customers did not agree with the changes and started shopping elsewhere.

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

J.C. Penney’s catered to everyone’s needs during all times, having higher class things for cheap prices so people can afford their merchandise. Reaching from kids clothing to formal clothing but being a leader in price. They knew that things had to be done about price gouging in the economy people were finding it hard to keep jobs and people were in and out of jobs quite often knowing that they needed to help everyone their prices remained lower than the competitions.

immediately gave a result and the sales were under the grown by twenty percent in the

The intensity of rivalry and the threat of substitutes are strong components for J.C. Penney to consider as they continue to strive for increased revenue and market share. Their two primary competitors are Macy’s and Kohl’s, both of whom have fiercely competitive strategies to be strong retail operations. For instance, while Macy’s offers a multitude of promotional deals and is working hard to choose products based upon demographics and geographic segmentation, Kohl’s is attempting to reduce their inventory levels and improve their marketing strategies in order to become a stronger competitor in the department store segment of the retail industry. In order to compete with their competitors, J.C. Penney aims to focus on their previously successful promotions and home department segmentations by bringing in new reputable designers in order to attract a larger customer base. Due to the fact that the intensity of rivalry and threat of substitutes are both moderately strong in the retail department store industry, J.C. Penney ought to be diligent in their implementation of strategies in order to achieve success in the retail business.

Threats: The threat of JCPenney is that growing counterfeit goods market may keep customers away from going to J. C. Penney. Plus, due to fast swift of fashion trends and also pricing pressure, JCPenney may lose its pace with the market. Finally, JCPenney still needs to deal with the weak financial projection for FY2012.

The paper will discuss pricing strategy that Ron Johnson or J.C Penney should have followed to save their store. Price discounts and allowances (Discounts) After reading the article “What Went Wrong at J.C. Penny?” I realized that Ron Johnson failed in his makeover in attempt to rescue J.C. Penney. He drove customers away from the store, by eliminating discounts and coupons, and replacing them with everyday low prices, and brings in new and expensive brands, which in tend, decreased sales.

JC Penney had to undergo and withstand several competitive issues to include changing of brand image, selling strategy and marketing strategy. JC Penney also had to account for Environmental Factors to include: a population that continued to age and also unemployment rates. JC Penney tried to influence customers by portraying an everlasting sale. No matter how hard JC Penney tried to market their products, if people didn’t

One of the main problems, according to the information in the case, was that Johnson was relying too much in his instincts. He was very convinced that the new strategy was going to work, so besides the fact that there were sceptic voices on new strategy’s success he trusted his instinct and decided not to do any market research prior to the implementation. Being an experienced retailer, he kept referring to the success stories of the past, especially with Apple, and kept simulating conversation with Steve Jobs. Referring always to the Apple retail was not the right compression, knowing that

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