Product Overview

Product Overview
Introduction
JC Penney is a large chain of publicly traded department stores with a history dating back to the early 1900’s.  There have been over 1000 physical stores opened within the United States and Puerto Rico.  These popular department stores offer one stop shopping including, optometry, portrait studios, clothing, accessories, shoes, fine jewelry and more for all ages and genders.  Gaining a lot of customer loyalty with the baby boomer generation for the quality of their Kenmore brand of household appliances and the JC Penney catalog which launched in the 1960’s, the JC Penney brand is probably one of most well-known companies in America. They were also the first national corporation to get on board with e-commerce by launching jcpenney.com in 1994.
Problem Statement and Issues

The problem is that what JC Penney did in the past to lead the industry is no longer working for them.  The company is suffering a decrease in sales and planning to close 140 stores in the near future. With the increase of competition and online shopping, the physical stores are just not bringing in the sales they used to.  Although JC Penney used to be the go to place for all of a family’s needs, that is not the case today.  They may have led the market in being the first to offer online shopping, the image and brand has yet to attract the newer generation of shoppers.  The millennials are very savvy about online shopping, have the ability to comparison shop and prefer to buy from more edgy and trendy brands.  

 Advertising/Marketing Objectives
Main objectives for marketing and advertising in this campaign are redeveloping the brand to a younger demographic and promoting new product lines that align with achieving the brand redevelopment. Reaching the new target market through an increased social media presence and increasing sales revenues as a result are additional objectives.

Campaign Aims
Brand Recognition – Increase brand recognition of new clothing lines by creating a television advertisement showcasing them and focusing efforts on highly popular social media networks to reach the new campaign target market of millennials; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Sales Growth / Increase Sales – During the quarter, JC Penney only reached $3.96 billion in revenue (Gustafson, 2017). One of JC Penney’s main competitors, Target, reached $20.69 billion in revenue (Gustafson, 2017). Increasing JC Penney’s revenue share to at least $8 billion by 2019 and $16 billion by 2020 is a campaign aim. In 2007, shares reached $85 but are now only holding steady at $8 since 2015 (Tribune Media Wire, 2016). Increasing sales more than would be considered “just slightly” is a campaign aim; a growth to $16 a share by 2019 and $32 a share by 2020 is the initial revenue aims.

Increase Online Visibility – In order to increase revenues, there needs to be more marketing focus on the new target market and reaching them where they spend a lot of their time. A campaign aim is to increase online visibility; this means making sure there is a strong JC Penney presence on as many social media networks as possible and the company website is well developed with efficient optimization, including search engine optimization.

Strengthen Social Media Presence – Showcase the new product lines on social media networks and run some promotional events that will get the target market interacting and talking about the changes being made; run a social media competition for best JC Penney look, start a fitness group of people wearing Ivy Park, etc. Creating more attractive display pictures and account features will also be a part of this aim.


Authors
Diana Gilbert: Introduction & Problem Statement and Issues 
TaShannah Crippen: Advertising/Marketing Objectives & Campaign Aims
Professor Harry Derderian
Marketing Strategy and Design
Baker College Online
04/05/2017


References
Gustafson, K. (2017, February 24). JCPenney shuttering up to 140 stores as sales weaken, more
sluggish growth seen ahead. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/24/jc-penney-earnings-q4-2016.html
Gustafson, K. (2017, February 28). Target shares plunge on earnings shortfall and weak outlook
on sales. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/28/target-earnings-q4-2016.html
JCPenney. About us. Retrieved from

http://www.jcpenney.com/jsp/browse/marketing/promotion.jsp?&pageId=pg4003600001
Tribune Media Wire. (2016, June 07). 30 companies that might disappear in 2017. Retrieved
from http://wgntv.com/2016/06/07/30-companies-that-might-disappear-in-2017/

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