JC Penney, a name most folks associate with the basic old style department store, has gone through a transformation. In the last 10 years the company has gone from the brink of failure, with their mall-based stores competing and losing out to retailers such as Old Navy, Target and Walmart. How can you win the type customers you’re when your retail presence is long gone.
JC Penney’s move to more updated styles of clothing as well as exclusive lines have improved their market edge. In addition nto updating their products, they did some serious work in asssessing who is their target customer. The new value proposition for JC Penney was a big change, but they also are competing for style. So JCP is now focused on a younger demographic; teens as well as what I call the “underwear marketing” – the commodity-level items.
The other big thing that JC Penney has done is moved away from mall-only locations. This was a strategic shift from the 80’s when then were abandoning downtowns stores established in the 1920’s for shopping malls. In Berkeley, California, they closed their profitable store in 1985.
The big shift branding-wise I both like and am concerned about is how they’re new brand mark does not directly connect to the old Penny’s. There’s no reference to the old brand. It’s kind of an updated American flag look with the initials jcp. Who’s that? They also are touting no more discounting. They claim to have now lowered all their prices and they still have this strange first and third Friday’s extra discount coupon – what the heck does that mean? I’ve asked some avid Penny’s shoppers if that coupon would motivate a trip to jcp. The anwer — for what? Nothing specifically equated to value is there.
Good luck on the changes jcp but I’m worried you’ve abandoned the anchors of value that loyal customers were acting on, and completely changed the name without explainig where’s the value for me, the customer?