{"id":368,"date":"2012-04-05T15:29:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T19:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=368"},"modified":"2016-11-04T15:32:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:32:03","slug":"jcp-spells-a-brand-new-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=368","title":{"rendered":"JCP SPELLS A BRAND NEW BRAND!"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/BvburqBU854″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

If you have been reading these articles over the past couple years, you know that I have often questioned the strategies of stores like JCPenney and Kohl\u2019s since it seemed that they must have had investments in a printing company or paper mills with the amount of print advertising that they have been pouring out. Moreover, it was hard to tell one sale ad from another and to understand if these sales circulars and the strategy behind them really broke through to the customers and motivated them into the stores. Differentiation certainly was not one of the objectives in my opinion.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was really interested when JCPenney made some significant moves in marketing in 2011. In addition to Ron Johnson taking over at CEO and bringing his Target and Apple heritage with him, Michael Francis also made the move from Minneapolis to Plano as President. The results, I think have been noteworthy. I\u2019ve always felt that Penney\u2019s did a great job with running stores with exceptional displays and merchandising and their aggressive broadcast advertising under Mike Boylston was some of the best in the industry. However, they seemed to be obsessed with trying to out-promote their similar competition. How often can you have \u201clowest prices of the season\u201d or a \u201cone-two-three day sale\u201d before the customer gets bored and ignores you. Certainly, Kohl\u2019s continues to follow this promotional format, but their brand has been carefully developed with a new and younger shopper who has rejected JCPenney as \u201ctheir mother\u2019s store.\u201d It was time to break that mold, and I think they are shaking it up with a good, sound creative strategy. The Ellen DeGeneres campaign not only broke through with humor and universally liked spokesperson but it also made a logical and sensible argument that has made WalMart the largest retailer in the world\u2014no nonsense, every day low prices. The other broadcast spots have complemented Ellen\u2019s message and have added some real creativity to what has been a retail wasteland in broadcast. The stores have been upgraded and the merchandise is better than ever.<\/p>\n

\"april-1-pre-print-cover\"However, I think it\u2019s the print advertising that stands out more than anything else for the jcp brand. It\u2019s not simply Target advertising with a new logo. There are strong messages to go along with outstanding layout and photography. Simple yet striking. The ads make you want to read on and moreover, take a trip to see the stuff in the store. Yes, they still promote special prices on the first and third Friday (who\u2019s going to remember that?) but in the atmosphere of these striking ad messages, even that seems to make sense. A recent article in the New York Times discussed the fact that most customers really liked and used coupons. Yes, we do (especially for pizza!). But the success of the largest retailer shows that a believable low price strategy can trump the one week specials over and over again.<\/p>\n

Finally, what about the name change? They had to communicate that things have changed and while the jcp logo is simple and contemporary, I think it sends a message of new and young, while maintaining the identity of the parent that has a long heritage in fashion and home. It will be interesting to watch what happens now since it will likely take the customers a while to come back and give jcp a try, but with the sound brand strategy in place and the creativity that\u2019s already been shown, there\u2019s a great chance for success.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/BvburqBU854″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] If you have been reading these articles over the past couple years, you know that I have often questioned the strategies of stores like JCPenney and Kohl\u2019s since it seemed that they must have had investments in a printing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}