Jcpenney Company Problems

J. C. Penney is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas. The company operates 1,060 department stores in 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and previously operated a catalog business and several discount outlets. However, J. C. Penney were listed as one of the nine retailers closing the most stores according to US today and its stock price went down from $100 to $9 within last 8 years. What’s wrong with J. C. Penney?

Positioning problem

To make the store more appealing for customers to come into the store, JCpenney came up with the idea of unique boutiques within each JCPenney—the store-within-a-store concept. However, JC Penney core customer has been 35 to 55 years old woman who has between $ 35,000 and $ 100,000 in household income , and Jc penney was not able to differentiate itself from other competitors and attract younger customer. These people definitely would not buy your strategy, especially in economic downturn( after 2008).

Wrong Location & pricing strategy

Problems with the company is that they rely largely on shopping malls for their primary location . However, the shopping mall is no longer a central hangout place than it used to be .In the past few years , JC Penney Company try to change the brand image to discount- retailer but failed completely.  People react emotionally to price. Seeing a discount or on sale causes an emotional reaction that makes consumers feel like they're getting more value When consumers see a higher price for a product and information that they can get it with less money, the perception of a valuable deal is quickly formed. Jc penny’s mistake is not to change inflated pricing to a more honest pricing strategy, but to do it quickly and assume that consumers would understand it and react the way they want instantly. It takes time for customer to realize and react to the change.