...Retail Giants: JCPenney vs. Target Kelly Greenwood October 2, 2011 Columbia College JCPenney: History In business since April 1902, when James Cash Penney opened “The Golden Rule, a dry good and clothing store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Although the name of the store was changed to JCPenney, in 1907, the company’s “Golden Rule” philosophy (do unto others as you would have them do unto you) remains unchanged. In 1927, JCPenney was listed on the NY Stock Exchange. Currently, JCPenney operates 1,108 department stores thoughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, providing 112 million square feet of selling space. JCPenney offers private, exclusive and national brands. Its private brands are “developed, designed and sourced in-house, generating nearly 50 percent of the Company’s annual revenue.” (JCPenney, 2011) JCPenney has partnered with Sephora, Call It Spring™, MNG by Mango® and Modern Bride® to create a boutique style shopping experience within the JCPenney store. JCPenney “sells family apparel and footwear, accessories, fine and fashion jewelry, beauty products and home furnishings. It also provides various services, such as styling salon, optical, portrait photography, and custom decorating.” (Yahoo Finance, 2011) It hosts one of the largest apparel and home furnishings e-commerce sites, posting revenues in excess of $1.5 billion in 2010. JCPenney posted approximately $17.8 billion in total revenues in 2010. “JCPenney has a balance of both mall-based and off-mall stores. Productivity...
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...Financial Analysis of Jc Penny A brief overview of the rebrand Financial Analysis of Jc Penny A brief overview of the rebrand History J.C. Penney Company, Inc has about 1,100 stores in all 50 states. J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (JCPenney) is the second largest department store in the United States behind Sears Roebuck. JCPenneys’ name came from James Cash Penney who started his first retail store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a small mining town when his was 26 years old called Golden Rule. Even though the local banker cautioned Penney against opening a "cash only" store, since three other previous investor attempts failed, Penney still proceeded. In Penney's 1st year, the store successfully made $28,898 in sales. By 1913, Penney changed the company’s name to J.C. Penney Company, Inc. and moved the corporate headquarters to New York City to be closer to manufacturers and suppliers. Private label brands were a major reason for the success of the company; JC Penney could determine the price and used this to increase his profit margin. Some private label examples include Belle Isle, Ramona, and Honor Brand. In 1929 the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. When the Great Depression hit, the company cut back its inventory and purchased goods at lower prices so it could pass the savings on to customers. The company's profits even increased during the Depression and the number of stores grew to 1,496. During World War II, Materials and merchandise were scarce...
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...Since the creation of humans, business has been established. For example, People around the world have long been selling merchandise in exchange for gold, and they have long been driving to stores to purchase goods. With the technological evolution, this practice has changed. Today, people don’t even have to go to the store to buy what they want because they have the possibility of having the market virtually present in the comfort of their own home. In regard to this, any business that expands its market online will basically profit in expansion moving from a local to a global market. In this case, the income will be largely intensified. Home Dress’n X is a company that specializes in selling clothes, shoes, home accents, bed and bath products, and luggage. It opened its doors in 1982, selling its merchandise with bargain prices. Nowadays, it is well-known among the S&P, Fortune 500, and Nasdaq 100. Although Home Dress’n X has high ranges in the brick-and-mortar market, its website shows otherwise in the virtual market. The store has been very successful due its great prices as opposed to its competitors. However, when taking a look at the Home Dress’n X website, one can visibly see not much marketing there. Additionally, the website, as opposed to the store, is very dull and not enough diversity is shown. For instance, the store has a variety of merchandise, some brand names, and new trends. The merchandise are arranged according to sexes, sizes, genres, and new arrivals...
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...and meets the accepted standards for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Linda Manikowske Chair Holly Bastow-Shoop Jaeha Lee Gerry Macintosh Approved: 04-24-2012 Date Holly Bastow-Shoop Department Chair ABSTRACT The JCPenney Company has undergone a transition from a value retailer to a streamlined, customer-driven retailer in order to set itself apart from its biggest competitors, Macy’s and Kohl’s. Previously, JCP was focused on general, storewide promotions. Currently, JCP has retooled their image to reflect a standard set of prices and special savings. In this exploratory look at JCP’s merchandising strategy, both previous and new methods are examined and additional steps to improve the returns on merchandising investments are offered. During this study, a detailed examination of JCP’s internal and external environments has been conducted, and an analysis of their consumer trends is presented. Suggestions for improvement in product strategy include the limited expansion of current on-trend or high fashion brands, as well as the acquisition of limited partnerships with new brands. In addition, collaborations with cosmetics and electronics during key shopping dates would benefit the existing infrastructure at JCPenney. iii DEDICATION Thank...
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...of Agriculture and Applied Science By Alisha Liane Ostlund In Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Major Department: Apparel, Design, and Hospitality Management April 2012 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title JC Penney Strategic Marketing Plan 2012: Product Strategy By Alisha Liane Ostlund The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Linda Manikowske Chair Holly Bastow-Shoop Jaeha Lee Gerry Macintosh Approved: 04-24-2012 Date Holly Bastow-Shoop Department Chair ABSTRACT The JCPenney Company has undergone a transition from a value retailer to a streamlined, customer-driven retailer in order to set itself apart from its biggest competitors, Macy’s and Kohl’s. Previously, JCP was focused on general, storewide promotions. Currently, JCP has retooled their image to reflect a standard set of prices and special savings. In this exploratory look at JCP’s merchandising strategy, both previous and new methods are examined and additional steps to improve the returns on merchandising investments are offered. During this study, a detailed examination of JCP’s internal and external environments has been conducted, and an analysis of their consumer trends is presented. Suggestions for improvement in product strategy include the limited...
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...the J.C. Penney was incorporated. It started out with 34 stores and 20 shareholders (Elizabeth, 2010). The shareholders were store managers, former partners, Mr. Penney as the president and major shareholder. JC Penney became a public traded listed company on the New York Stock Exchange in 1927 (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, 2012).The headquarter is located in Plano, TX, and operates in the United States and Puerto Rico, with more than 1,100 stores and counting. JCPenney merchandises include Women’s, Kid’s, Home, Shoes, Men’s Clothing, and Bed & Bath. My role is an organization consultant. I will provide new idea to JCPenney on how they can become more profitable to consumers again. To improve sales and their image, JC Penny close their catalog business, outlet stores, exit the drug store business, and closed under-performing stores (Booten, 2011). With this reformation, many people were laid off. Problem Statement JCPenny had set the top company priority as making sales for the quarter. With downsizing, JCPenney changed their image and logos. Figure 1 display the logos for JC Penney over the years. The problem that JC Penny is facing is consumer spending. The majority of their customers were middle-class American who lost their job in the Recession of 2009. With most companies, JC Penny did not change with the time. It was struck in their old ways of during business. As a major...
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...Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, opened the first Walmart store in 1962 in a rural town using an idea he acquired while working at JCPenney. Since then the company has grown tremendously. In 2001 Walmart was considered the “world’s largest retailer” surpassing big retailers like Sears, JCPenney, Target and Kmart, its “net sales had grown to $408 billion” by 2010, and today it “operates over 11,000 retail units” throughout the world (Carroll and Buchholtz 599-600) (Walmart Stores, Inc). However, since Walmart is the largest and most known company in the world, it has become a target of criticism to many groups and individuals. Some people see Walmart as a socially responsible company, while others see it as a “billion-dollar parasite” that should be banned from communities; and these different views create perceived conflicts of interest (Carroll and Buchholtz 602). Such conflicts, coupled with society’s criticism towards the biggest retailer, include business closures, traffic congestion, and urban sprawl. In fact, to be further discussed throughout this paper, Walmart’s opponents are already trying to hinder its expansion since the company is not fulfilling all their social responsibilities and the economy could suffer long-term consequences. To be objective, a brief analysis of the company’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) using the four-part CSR model, can provide a better understanding of why it is causing problems...
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...TermPaperWarehouse.com - Free Term Papers, Essays and Research Documents The Research Paper Factory JoinSearchBrowseSaved Papers Home Page » Business and Management Jc Penney In: Business and Management Jc Penney 1. I feel J.C. Penney’s strategy is to do with away constant “sales” and have every day lower prices. I also feel that Penney’s will favor the promotion of brand names and doing away with in-house labels. 2. Yes I think Penney’s has a good strategy for growth. The new CEO Ron Johnson is providing direction and encouraging new ideas. By using the “apple” model for Penney’s he is incorporating new ideas. Mr. Johnson is trying to develop a competitive advantage by changing the way Penney’s does business. His ideas are innovative and are being responsive to customers. Finally by offering brand names he is promoting quality over cheaper in-house labels. 3. Ron Johnson has established the mission and vision with his vision on how Penney’s needs to change to become competitive. He has established the grand strategy by assessing Penney’s current performance and lays out the game plan on how the mission will be accomplished. Mr. Johnson has clearly formulated his strategy by analyzing Penney’s internal problems along with the problems they have are facing from their competitors. Penney’s is currently n the strategy implementation part of the process this will take much investment but cost cutting and the elimination of sales have...
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...Financial Analysis FIN 534 Financial Management February 2015 In the history of retail department stores in the United States, very few companies have had the success and notoriety that J.C. Penney Company has made throughout our lives. With the exception of Sears Roebuck and Company and Macy’s, J.C. Penney is one of the more well-known companies of all time in the retail business. J.C Penney, formerly known as Penneys, is a chain of department stores that are based in Plano, Texas. The first store opened in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming by a local entrepreneur, James Cash Penney. In 1912, the company had expanded to 34 stores mainly located in the Rocky Mountain States. The original name of the stores was The Golden Rule Store until the company was incorporated under the name of J.C. Penney Company in 1913. In 1914, the company moved its headquarters to New York City to help with the simplification of financing, transportation and the simplifying of buying goods and merchandise (J.C.Penney). One important milestone for the company was the opening of their 500th store in 1924 in Hamilton, Missouri, James Cash Penney’s hometown. The year 1940 was also an important moment in retail history when Sam Walton began working for J.C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa. Mr. Walton later went on to become one of the biggest entrepreneur’s in modern retail history with his Wal-Mart franchise. The company now has over 1100 department stores throughout the United States and also Puerto Rico (J...
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...packaging supplies, shipping cost and inventory. There are different factors that could affect these costs. One of those factors being how much JCP sales volume changes. Some costs will not change at all with changes in sale volume (monthly rent). In my opinion that demand for my company’s is elastic. JCP has recently switched to the “everyday low prices”, instead of the coupons. This means that instead of raising their prices and offering coupons then they will be offering lowered prices every day without the coupon. With lowering their prices, more customers return to JCP, in order to shop. The quantity demand had increase, making the prices decrease for a period of time. JCP is also elastic due its growing competition (i.e. Macys, Target and Wal-Mart. JCP products and services are elastic. Most of these products can be found at other retail stores. There are some products at JCP that are exclusive, which can be considered inelastic. Since there is little to no competition, the products would be inelastic. The price of these products can be somewhat expensive. The total quantity demand would lower if there was a price increase. JCP supply is also elastic. JCP is again a retail store with different products that are offered at other companies. There supply would go up more if there would be an increase in...
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...long-term value for SHC. This merger will benefit both companies in an ever changing and competitive retail industry. SHC will be able to enter into new markets with its combined expertise of Kmart in discounter stores and Sears in department stores. This merger benefits both companies in different ways separately and to the new merged entity – SHC. Kmart will benefit from the planned cost sharing of several of Sears leading proprietary brands as well as present opportunities to capture significant revenue and cost synergies including merchandise and non-merchandise purchasing, distribution and other administrative expenses. Sears will be out of malls, and will benefit from Kmart’s stores locations which are in high-income customer target market. By combining these two forces, SHC will increase its market share presence. This merger becomes a strategic fit that allow a company to expand into new markets and benefit from cost synergies. In...
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...S EC T I O N I CHAPTER ONE Introduction to the World of Retailing CHAPTER TWO The World of Retailing The chapters in Section I provide background information about retail customers and competitors that you will need to understand the world of retailing and then develop and effectively implement a retail strategy. Types of Retailers CHAPTER THREE Multichannel Retailing CHAPTER FOUR Customer Buying Behavior Introduction to the World of Retailing Retailing Strategy Chapter 1 describes the functions that retailers perform and the variety of decisions they make to satisfy customers’ needs in rapidly changing, highly competitive retail environments. The remaining chapters in this section give you further background information to understand the world of retailing. Chapter 2 describes the different types of retailers. Chapter 3 examines how retailers use multiple selling channels— stores, the Internet, catalogs—to reach their customers. Merchandise Management Store Management Chapter 4 discusses the factors consumers consider when choosing retail outlets and buying merchandise. The chapters in Section II focus on the strategic decisions that retailers make. The chapters in Sections III and IV explore tactical decisions involving merchandise and store management. Introduction to the World of Retailing EXECUTIVE BRIEFING Maxine Clark, Chief Executive Bear, Build-A-Bear Workshop became President of Payless Shoe Stores, then a division of May...
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...J.C. Penney’s Real Problem: The Shrinking Middle Class * Rita McGrath April 12, 2013 Ron Johnson’s office seat has barely cooled off following his departure as business observers everywhere dissect what went so dreadfully wrong at J.C. Penney. The former Apple executive was too Silicon Valley for the Plano, Texas, retailer. He was arrogant. He didn’t test his ideas, maintaining the Apple mantra that customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them. He approved marketing campaigns that told loyal Penney’s shoppers that “you deserve to look better,” basically telling them that they looked less than glamorous wearing the brand they had trusted and been comfortable with for years. He hoarded information so that individual store merchandisers didn’t know how various lines were performing. He mocked J.C. Penney’s ways of doing things. He abandoned the discounting customers had come to expect from retailers. And he, and most of the team he recruited, were commuter leaders, jetting back to California after cramming in marathon work sessions at headquarters. These factors certainly couldn’t have helped. I think, however, there’s one major reason behind J.C. Penney’s sudden swoon that not enough commentators are picking up on. There’s one big reason JCP would never be “Bloomingdale’s for the mass market,” as Johnson wanted it to be, and that’s because the mass market is gone. Because the middle class is gone, or at least rapidly going. This reflects a troubling development...
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...Merybeth Quiros Module Lecturer: Peter Bell International Business Planning & Marketing MNM41 A Business Strategy Review and a Marketing Review of Sears 1st submission Date Due in: April 19, 2012 Number of pages: 23 Word count :3,281 Table of Contents sEARS bUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW i Executive Summary 2-3 introduction brief history and background of sears 4 mission & obJECTIVES II evaluation of sears existing mission and objectives 5-6 External analysis IIi Competitors 7 PEST 8-9 Five forces Analysis 10-11 Opportunities & Threats 11 InternaL aNALYSIS iV Strenghts & Weaknesses 12 Financial ratios analysis 13-14 Past and current strategies 15 Sears current strategic position v Sears current strategy Balance Scorecard 16-17 Porter’s Generic strategies 17 rEcommendations vi Objectives and strategic actions 19-21 Evaluation 22- 23 Conclusion 24-26 Bibliography Executive Summary Sears, once the leader of the retail industry, is now facing financial troubles and is relegated to the 10th position in the market (Store org, 2011). Even after the merger with K-Mart, the retail conditions have not seemed to improved, but in fact, Sears Holding’s financial reports continued...
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...“The Mission of Levi Strauss & Co. is to sustain responsible commercial success as a global marketing company of branded apparel.” (“Mission Statement”). Levi’s main goal is to be a long-lasting company, as it’s written in their mission statement. The company has been around for quite some time; almost everyone can recognize the name Levi’s. But when someone purchases a pair of Levi’s jeans, they probably don’t think about what goes on behind-the-scenes, or how the jeans were actually made. The following paragraphs will cover Levi’s raw materials, modes of transportation, marketing strategy, and their operations. Jeans were invented shortly after the California Gold rush. Levis Strauss then began making miners’ denim work pants with copper rivets. The denim pant had already existed for a while at the time, but Mr. Strauss’ addition of the metal rivets at pocket corners and other points of strain made regular denim pants a “Levi”. In the year 1873, Levi Strauss and his business partner Jacob Davis received a patent for what would soon become the most popular denim brand ever made. (“Levi Strauss”). Because Levi’s is a well-known, international brand, it has suppliers all over the world. There are many different routes through which a pair of Levi’s jeans can be made, throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. One of the many routes taken in the production of a pair of Levi jeans is one located right here in the United States, operating from the...
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