JCP and 1000 Pennies

This is the follow-up to my article Your Logo. There I offered a brief compare and contrast analysis between JCP® and Macy's®.  This is the extension.

One thousand pennies equals $10.00 (ten dollars).  That is the value of the coupon offered by JCP, heretofore known as J. C. Penney's.  On television, this has been reported as JCP sends customers letter explaining why they don't offer coupons. The letter included a coupon.  

However, shoppers seldom, if ever, conduct a review of the stock prices, the growth curve, or the business news before going shopping.


Your Logo

Your logo is actually how a customer feels when shopping in your store or buying your product.  How the customer feels is the why of 'why a customer goes to your store'.

Let's watch a customer in Sears®.  A Mom, with several children, sees a dress.  The dress is $11.00. Mom knows she can buy that dress at Family Dollar® for $7.00.  The difference?  Well, two dresses means a third dress.  Eight ($8.00) dollars can be a night's meal.  Two nights for a smaller family. 

Have you ever heard this conversation?

"The mall is crowded.  I can't find a parking spot."

"Just park over by Penneys.  We can go through Penneys into the mall.  We just have to remember we parked by Penneys."

That is not very flattering.  Is it true?  Do you know?  Did you ask?  Did you issue a statement saying how much your customers love shopping at JCPenney?

Your Catalogue

Does your catalogue look inviting?  Or does your catalogue look more like a catalogue for clip-art? Do you know? Did you ask? Whom did you ask?  Now we have this conversation:

"Can you put that picture of the sweater on my website?"

"Not a problem.  A simple copy-paste. No extra charge."

"Thanks."

Sorry, folks, but I found the catalogue uninspiring.  Of course, that is only my opinion.  How are your sales figures? Your profit figures. Your stocks?

I've walked through JCP.  Nothing enticed me to stop and look.  I've walked through Macy's. I stop, I look, I shop.  Men's Clothing. Men's Shoes.  The place where they sell that cookware stuff. (Real people do not speak the same language as the people in marketing.)


Slim Fairview's Illustration of Empirical Analysis.

Did you try it?  Yes.
Did things get more high, good, better? No.
Did things get more low, bad, worse? Yes.
Conclusion?  Don't do that.

Of course, only you can know what is going on inside.  However, it seems intuitively obvious to the casual observer that you might not know what is going inside the shopper's head.  You may not know what the shopper is feeling.

Miracle Marketing

JCP is not Walmart. JCP is not Macy's.  As Jim Cramer pointed out: Gimbel's.

There are some things the marketing department cannot do.  For example: For the last two months of every year--the prime shopping time--Macy's becomes the Miracle on 34th Street.

"Uh, since the United States Government declares this man to be Santa Claus, this court will not dispute it. Case dismissed"


What? How? Who? Why? 

What are you?
Who are your customers?
How do your customers feel?
Who does your marketing?
Why? 

Rethink the way your rethink the problem. Rethink the way you rethink the solution.

JCP: a thousand pennies.

Regards, 

Slim 

Slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2012 Slim Fairview