The Mains Issue Facing J.c. Penny

Together the two heads of JCPenney (JCP) originated from successful corporations and are currently fuelling such achievements into JCPenney. JCP’s restructurment occurred in February 2012 and has changed the assessing arrangement inside the store. The store has been imparted a new style with changes in marketing, rating, store location and administration. All of these variations have been developed to improve the company’s performance.

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.

Macy’s Inc. ratio was .02 and JC Penny Co. Inc. was .00. To improve this ratio, both companies need to improve on their net income. If JC Penny doesn’t continue to improve its net income, then this ratio will begin to lean negative, signaling the company is losing money for every dollar is sales and may not be good investment. Macy’s Inc. still has room before it hits .00, however, if their net income continues to fall, they soon too may have the same profit margin ratio as JC Penny Co. Inc. Shutting down unsatisfactory stores – as each company is doing – may help improve this ratio as well. With less funding going to these stores, such as salary’s, rent, and wasted inventory, they will be able to improve their net income value.

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

In January 2012, newly appointed CEO, Ron Johnson introduced a plan to rebrand the department store chain into a 21st century retail powerhouse. Launching of the new J. C. Penney brand identity was set to occur over four years and would include a new logo, a new in-store experience featuring new and transformed brands, and most importantly, it would change the way that the company priced merchandise. Unfortunately, J. C. Penney suffered a 25% sales decline in the first year and Johnson was fired after only 17 months.

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.

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.

J.C. Penney is a chain department store that provides plentiful materials and food and provides its customers with services, such as styling salon, optical, portrait photography, and custom decorating in the United States. As a well-known department store, J.C. Penney, it is a leading department store retailer of apparel, accessories and home furnishings. But from the beginning of March to the end of May, JCP stock has been generally falling in price. According to a recent research from Green Street Advisors, they thought the American shopping malls were declining at a scary rate. Now, it comes out clearer from the data of the stocks. From looking at J.C. Penney stock, it is evident from that stock going down that J.C.

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.

In terms of sales and marketing, we adapted our strategy based on how the products played in each segment. Our strategy was to spend efficiently in marketing & sales to keep the customer awareness and accessibility high for the premium products, while maintaining a decent level of awareness and accessibility in other segments.

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

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

An analysis of the Q3 2016 earnings call for J.C. Penney reveals that the remarks of CEO Marvin Ellison followed a structure designed to reassure analysts and investors worried about the company’s catastrophic misfortunes in recent years and the possibility of a turnaround under Mr. Ellison’s management.  The communications strategy was to deliver bad news first and then to rebuild confidence by dwelling on positive developments that impart an optimistic view of the company’s prospects.  Mr. Ellison began his discussion by directly confronting disappointing results in the company’s core apparel division and offering clear explanations for them.  Having delivered the bad news up front, the rest of his remarks focused on positive results in many

Ullman was called back to replace Mr. Johnson. Ullman had been in charge as the CEO before Johnson came on board. Ullman was quickly called upon to bring back JCP on track pending the time another person will come. Ullman had faced a tough time bringing back the sales despite reversing many of the changes Mr. Johnson had set in place. Some of the noticeable changes he restored were discounts and house brands. He also brought back promotions and coupons that Mr. Johnson stopped during his reign as the CEO (Kraft-Linder, 2014). In the first half of 2014, there was a growth of 6%, but they remain $2.2 billion below the sales position in 2011, three months before Mr. Johnson came on board (Kapner, 2014).