The J. C. Penney New Business Model

At this specific time, the economy was coming out of Great Recession. JC Penney sales continued to decline like melted off ice cream falling off an ice cream cone. JCP’s should have stopped their bad marketing train years ago. Based off of personal experiences their merchandise was cheap, fall apart cheap up until the point where I repeatedly kicked myself for making such horrible purchases. I used to shop at JC Penney a lot, but the t-shirts didn’t survive washings; cheap China stuff people tend to shy away from.

The history behind J.C. Penney’s spans for over a hundred years. James Cash Penny started the company in Wyoming, in 1907 he bought out his other 2 partners and over the next 6 years opened many stores throughout the mountain west. In 1913 he incorporated the business, moved to New York for better access to suppliers. By 1915 he had opened up 83 stores. He survived during the great depression because of the use of materials and leadership practices, higher quality for lower price. They grew to 1496 stores by 1936 and sales reaching $1 billion in sales by its 50th anniversary. Around 1961 is when they started incorporating themselves into shopping centers and strip malls.

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).

In 2013, this department store has been celebrating being in business for 110 years. It also once lured its customers in with its famous discount pricing strategy and coupons. The retailer is J.C. Penney, a fixture at shopping malls across the country. In 2012, J.C. Penney rebranded itself by making the announcement that it wanted to become America 's favorite store by creating a specialty department store experience (JCP, 2013). Founder James Cash Penney began the company with a Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated Fair and Square (JCP, n.d.).

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

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

HISTORY : In 1902, James Cash Penney, in partnership with two other associates, opened the Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. At the time it was uncommon to charge the same price to each and every customer; however, Penney preached the slogan "one price charged to all," regardless of customers' social status. After buying out his partners (in 1907), Mr. Penney opened two more stores. At present, J.C. Penney has more then 1400 department stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and Mexico, making it one of the largest retailers in the world.

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.

JC Penney Co. Incorporated was founded in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming by James Cash Penney and William Henry McManus. Today JC Penney offers a range of family apparel, jewelry, shoes, accessories, and home furnishing products through a chain of department stores and their company website. JC Penney, headquartered in Plano, TX, operates in the United States and Puerto Rico, with a total of 1,108 stores. JC Penney also offers its products through a catalog channel. Each channel serves the same type of customers and provides generally the same merchandise mix. JC Penney’s business is conducted through a single segment, but revenues are reported by product category. In addition to their product categories, the

Based on J.C.Penney’s current situation, and the above issues, we recommend the following strategic models.

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.

Founded in 1958 by Joe Coulombe and now established with more than 365 stores in the United States, Trader Joe 's has been serving customers with their unique business model. Trader Joe 's specializes in organic and natural food offering staples like milk, eggs, and other foods with below-average price points. Trader Joe’s encourage their customers to buy the product at a low price without having to be registered with the store. Once the company makes contacts with the manufacturer of the particular food product, it then establishes contracts with the producer to the supply the food and allocates the space needed in their store (Trader Joe’s, 2016).

Chief elements of Costco’s strategy were low prices, limited selection, and a treasure-hunt shopping environment. The ultra-low pricing strategy includes a mark-up capped at 14% and Kirkland, a Costco brand designed to be of equal or better quality than national brands. Product Selection is limited to 4,000 items within a wide variety of categories. Costco does however include ancillary businesses to increase member alternatives. The loss of sales from customers who refuse to purchase large amounts is considered “Intelligent loss of sales.” Treasure-Hunt Merchandising consists of a constantly changing selection of 1,000 luxury items on the floor enticing shoppers to spend more than

JC Penney is not as large as some of its competitors, many of which have more substantial resources and are constantly attacking their market share. The company also faces threats from economic conditions, such as high unemployment and the recent recession. When consumers are under financial pressures can easily decide to shop elsewhere, such as Kohl’s, Target, and even the dreaded Walmart. Even the perception of better value can drive consumers elsewhere.

Sam Walton’s extraordinary business strategies drove Walmart to its success and their key focus was customer satisfaction. As part of their customer centric initiatives Walmart had set up a unique pricing strategy with their “Every Day Low Prices” EDLP (Karen Robson, 2013). They would offer customers their daily needs at the lowest possible price to drive Walmart’s growth in the United States (Karen Robson, 2013) . Their pricing strategy was different than other major retailers in the U.S at the time; this provided an advantage towards rapid success and expansion (Karen Robson, 2013).