Understanding Jcpenney Seasonal Pricing And Discounts Essay

You are in the role of a researcher employed by a marketing magazine and have been asked to investigate a number of promotional activities that may form the basis of future articles in editions of the magazine.

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).

Target’s business-level strategy is one that does not strictly focus entirely on one plan to gain a competitive advantage over competition. It encompasses various strategic and meticulous planning and decision making that is implemented in order to position the company at the top of the retail industry. With competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco, Target uses several clever and “out-of-the-box” ideas to attract consumer attention and ultimately increase market share within the industry. Most of the company’s ideas centered more on the differentiation of products and services provided to customers than lowering prices. For quite some time, the company’s plan was to not compete head-to-head with Wal-Mart in terms of lowering prices but instead to provide their customers, who they identify as “guests”, with a special experience every time they visited a Target location. One idea that was implemented was to market and sell upscale, trendy clothing and unique merchandise at discounted prices.1 This strategy, known as the “cheap-chic” strategy, focused on providing good quality clothing from various well known designers and fancy products from high-profile manufacturers for prices lower than their competition. This plan was vital because it began essentially began the concept of customers referring to Target as “Tar-zhay” which according to Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan, who are university professors, as a “connote its trendy sensibility”. Target

Black Friday is the following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many workers have the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday, this increases the number of potential shoppers. Retailers often decorate for the Christmas and holiday season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open extremely early, with most of the retailers typically opening at 5 A.M. or even earlier. Retailers use Black Friday to kick off the holiday season to use much of their products to go from the red to the black.

Consumers are always satisfied with good customer service. When it comes to retail store customer service and satisfaction it is important because department stores are large in size and finding help can be difficult. Colloquy, a company concerned with building customer value, released a survey and asked 3,000 consumers across five geographical areas to rate their personal experiences with retailers. Macy’s was ranked number one in the department store category, with the most loyal customers. To keep up with technology advances Macy’s has invested time and money into developing a more efficient online shopping site, Macys.com and Macysweddingchannel. This investment cost nearly $300 million in 2006-2008 is being used to scale-up these fast-growing businesses through improvements in delivery efficiency, online site functionality and customer service. To enhance the shopping experience at Macy’s 100 stores in 2007 experienced remodeling and began introducing the most advanced POS registers and systems to the sales floors nationwide. Macy’s passion is product and people. There continuing pursuit is to have unique fashionable merchandise ready for customer satisfaction. Macy’s promise is to always carry the best brands and the most-wanted items. They also believe in hiring the right employees. With the right employees, there will be a sense of motivation and helpfulness. The American Customer Satisfaction Index covers 200 companies’ products and

Customer satisfaction can be gauged by a number of indicators including fewer customer complaints, less product returns, a greater number of customer referrals, and a greater number of referrals per customer. An increase in customer requests for new products or services would demonstrate greater customer interest. Customer satisfaction and brand name awareness can also be gauged through either in-store or internet based surveys.

ABC retailers is a retail chain with presence in New York. It sells a variety of products ranging from groceries to health and beauty in consumer market segments. During the past year, the client faced shrinking sales because of which, they offered promotions to strengthen their market presence and boost product sales. The challenge was to measure the promotional

J.C. Penney does a variety of things well which includes possessing a diverse supplier base, a unique marketing campaign, effective inventory management, and point-of-sale technology initiatives. They also possess national and private brands along with in-store departments such as MNG by Mango, Call It Spring by Aldo Group, and Sephora which attracts younger, affluent customers. Seattle’s Best Coffee is also a compelling department which includes a full-service café. Not to mention, their rewards program is an aspect of their business they are doing well. Their program offers discounts and rewards for shopping which enables their customers to obtain good deals. J.C. Penney has a strong purpose which entails “fitting the diversity

After making purchases on both company websites and reviewing email correspondence sent to me from these companies, I observed all eleven determinates in both companies - adaptation, interactivity, nurturing, commitment, network, assortment, transaction ease, engagement, loyalty, inertia, and trust (2017). Emails I have received from these companies are relevant to my needs and make it easy to purchase the products which is nurturing and demonstrates adaptation. The websites are visually appealing, easy to find, and easy to use. Both companies offer a variety of products and make it easy to compare them. The familiarity with the website will keep customers coming back to the website rather than shopping other websites. Both companies send products in a timely manner and address customer concerns quickly. They also allow customers to write reviews that other customers can easily find to learn about other customer experiences. Target and JC Penney are trustworthy companies and both have loyal customers who feel the competitors do not offer the same overall experience as these companies. JC Penney and Target have both recently made changes with their marketing strategies in an attempt to increase customer satisfaction. The changes in products offered as well as promotions have helped boost overall customer satisfaction with the

In recent interviews conducted with five target audience members who all shop the Target brand on average once per week, all but one was a Red Card credit card holder. The fifth participant shopped at Target as often as the others, both online and retail, but cited not wanting another credit card as the reason for not having a Red Card. The other four interviewees were all familiar with the 5 percent discount on all purchases, free online shipping with no minimum purchase, and easy in-store returns. One also like the 5 percent donation Target makes to local schools of choice. None mentioned the 5 percent off for one day of shopping for every two prescriptions filled as incentive. Three of the five interviewed said that Target was their online retailer of choice, compared to the other two who stated Amazon as their preference. When asked what improvements, if any, could be made to better service customer needs, all interviewees who offered an answer mentioned website reliability and slowness as areas of concern. Due to these concerns, none participated in designer releases, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday during the past year. Of those interviewed, on average, 12 percent of their total Target shopping was done online vs. 88 percent in store. Once also stated that she would like the ability to make online purchases through the Cartwheel app.

The sampling population for the survey was 87 surveys per country club or roughly 348 surveys mailed out overall. The researchers received 63 usable surveys back from each club meaning a 72% response rate.

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.

This case study about J. C. Penney Co. is about how a company is trying to increase profitability by attracting the best assets in business – customers. Lowering prices and clearly marking down prices, and offering standardized products rather than unique and designer ones are what this company strategy

Trader Joe’s forgoes advertising for a strategy of customer relationship management because advertising “can’t create an experience. It’s the personal relationship with these people that builds loyalty” according to St. John, vice president of Trader Joe’s (Guth, and Marsh 183-187). Through this strategy, Trader Joe’s has seen much success. At the time of this case study, analysts estimated annual revenues to be around 3 billion. Today they are estimated to be around 8.5 billion. The effect is that the company has grown and still continues to grow. Trader Joe’s has gone from having 220 stores in 17 states in 2004 to 356 stores in 28 states as of June 2011 (“Trader Joe’s”). One area of attention for Trader Joe’s is to not lose sight of this customer relationship strategy as it continues to grow into a national or even global company. The company needs to continue to “pay attention to the information it

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