Market Research: J. C. Penney Corporation

Introduction The significance of research is to generate knowledge that can used to solve existing problems. Research creates the basis of policies and program development throughout the world. It allows us to learn more about people, things, and events, in turn, providing the necessary information to make smarter decisions (Sreevidya & Sunitha, 2011). J.C. Penney Corporation is a retail giant possibly on the brink of collapse with sales continuing to decline following the recession of 2009. The company has not been able to successfully compete with competitors like Walmart, TJ Maxx, Macy’s, Kohl’s and the online sales giant Amazon. The new CEO instated in 2011 along with his turn-around plan made J.C. Penney’s problems worse. Market research should be ever evolving for a retail company like J.C. Penney because it allows them to become more familiar the products, goods, and services that consumers want. J.C. Penney failed to do the necessary market research before making drastic changes to their

160). Secondary research is gathered from many different sources for collection of information from public or open resources, such as government data, newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. The primary benefit of preparing secondary research is because it is typically inexpensive and takes a lot less time. J.C. Penney can use secondary research by obtaining information from marketing firms that have collected data on consumer market trends. Furthermore, the company can use data that has been collected on retail growth and designer influence in the market to make product line decisions. Secondary research can also be obtained from the latest clothing styles worn by the celebrities in the tabloid magazines. This can be useful information to determine which current clothing lines to