M8: Assignment 3 Deniro Dawson Justin Palyvoda Caitlin Gayle Po Melanie Shane INFO 290_21 Professor Chen Macy’s vs. JCPenney Word Count: 1205 Introduction Macy's, Inc. is a retail company operating stores, websites and mobile applications under various brands, such as Macy's. The Company sells a range of merchandise, including apparel and accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other consumer goods.
In the day and age of shopaholics and fashion trends changing every week, looking into the history of JcPenney, a retail giant, is long overdue. JcPenney was founded by James Cash Penney. Before opening his highly successful retail store, he first worked as a sales person for the Golden Rule Mercantile Company ("J.C. Penney Company,”). After three years as a salesman, the founder of the company and his partner promoted Mr. Penney to a manager and partner of the company. Ultimately, this prompted him to opening his own branch of Golden Rule with a cash only policy which bankers in the area were sure that his plan would fail.
There is great opportunity for variety in success. H and M, Forever 21 and The Hudson’s Bay are all successful retail stores that can be found in major malls nation-wide; yet, these stores vary greatly in the aspects of store organization, product offerings, target markets and marketing strategies. The physical organization of a retail store includes considerations such as size and layout, that will determine the overall atmosphere of the store and the type of consumer that it attracts. H and M stores are typically large, at times with multiple floors and are divided into sections based on target markets and product lines.
J. Crew was established in New York City in 1947. The store was originally named “Popular Sales Club”. The owner Mickey Drexler started up the company as a door to door sales of women’s clothing (Strickland, 2014, Pg. 510). Over time Drexler changed the name to J. Crew to attract a more “Preppy, affluent consumer’s attention (Strickland, 2014, Pg. 510). Their goal was and still is to be a forefront of fashion and deliver exactly what consumers desired (Strickland, 2014, Pg. 515).
The first department store was established in New York City in 1846 by Alexander Turney Stewart (Keene, 482). Soon after, others began copy Stewart and created giant stores that had many “departments” (Keene, 482). Within the next few decades, department stores became very popular, and people would swarm to them. Not only for the merchandise that had a fixed price, but also for the experience. Before the department store, most people would make negotiations on prices of the goods rather than having an already settled, fixed price.
Three months into his position as Chief Executive of J.C Penney, Ron Johnson was wanting to turn things around. Mr. Johnson chose to actualize the same procedure utilized at his previous organization Apple. He laid out arrangements that included turning the stores into distinguished shops, lounge areas and overlooking steady deals for consistently low costs. The thought to make the store all the more welcoming included, highlighted brands names, acquire control over estimating. J.C. Penney has been battered for a long time by its rivals.
This strategy has allowed Kohl’s to focus specifically on the active and casual lifestyle segment. Within the retail industry, Kohl’s holds a differentiated position due to its off-mall store base, robust digital business, and unique partnerships with brands like Sephora and Amazon (Kohl’s, n.d.). The increase in recent partnerships has improved growth, allowing Kohl’s to emphasize a data-centric approach which will enhance customer relevance. Kohl’s critical strategic challenge lies in adapting to the retail
Case Analysis: J. C. Penney Company, Inc. Founded by James Cash Penney in 1902, J. C. Penney Company, Inc. has grown into a major mid-tier retailer. Focusing on providing goods and services for middle-income families, Penney’s competes in several segments. Although men’s and women’s apparel accounts for nearly half of all sales, Penney’s has a diverse portfolio including cosmetics, hair salons, home furnishings and appliances (J. C. Penney Company, Inc., 2015). As one of the oldest retailers in America, Penney’s has recently struggled to maintain the loyalty of existing customers while attempting to attract new ones. Historical Background Penney’s faced a hyper-competitive environment following the recession of 2008.
The retail sector has been dramatically transformed by the rise of e-commerce and the digital economy, requiring brick-and-mortar stores to rapidly evolve their retail models to remain competitive. However, some, like JCPenney, did not manage this transition well. JCPenney's notable underperformance, in contrast to the resilience shown by Walmart, Best Buy, or Target, is largely due to strategic and operational missteps under Ron Johnson's leadership. Unlike its competitors who adapted by improving their e-commerce platforms and focusing on customer experience, JCPenney made extensive changes without a clear understanding of its customer base or testing the strategies carefully. Their competitors integrated online sales channels, maintained
2.1 Introduction of the industry The retail industry includes all business activities, dealing with the distribution of goods and services for personal and household use. The industry can be divided into two major categories- department stores that deal with the distribution of general merchandize, and specialty stores, which are narrowly focused on a specific category, ranging from apparel to home furnishing, and sport goods. Discount stores, which offer goods at lower than the average prices, may be consider as a third category of the industry. However, in this report we will focus on the department store industry, to which our company- JC Penney belongs.
Started off as a small, fancy dry goods store that was opened on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue in New York City in 1858 by its founder Rowland Hussey, Macy has now become one of the largest retailers in the world. The 157 year old company deals in Clothing, footwear, accessories, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, and housewares. Macys was the first retailer to promote a woman to an executive position as well as pioneering major practices like one-price system, the system placed a code in which the same item was sold to every customer for the same price. Macys was the first to introduce to the world tea bags, the Idaho baked potato and colored bath towels. Macy’s have always strived to become a retailer who has the ability
Macy’s, a small dry goods store was opened in New York City in 1858 by Rowland H. Macy where Macy’s was initially opened as ‘R.H. Macy & Co.’ before it became one of the world’s largest retailers. The famous red star symbol was used as their company logo as Rowland H. Macy’s symbol of success during his sailor days. By 1877, R.H. Macy & Co. had become fully developed department store after a great success in sales since its’ opening store in 1858. Macy’s was also known for its several first changes and practices in the retail industry such as the one-price system which the same items are sold at the same price and Macy’s was also the first retailer to hold a New York City liquor license. In November 1902, Macy’s moved uptown to its present
Unfortunately in 1976, Abercrombie and Fitch had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to the fast they had lost $1 million. A Houston-based chain, Oshman’s Sporting Goods purchased the Abercrombie and Fitch name, trademark, and mailing list two years after they filed for bankruptcy. When they opened the store the merchandise included exercise machines, Harris-tweed jackets, and $70 pith helmets. Toward the end of 1986, the chain had successfully opened up 26 stores. However the stores veered away from hunting and fishing supplies, their main focus was exercise machines, tennis rackets, golf clubs, and other gear.
My chief objective in studying business at Ross is to determine the beginnings of my research on how to construct realistic means and measures to adjust social imbalances by addressing critical investment funding limitation issues for peoples’ efforts to create new or to expand growth-oriented small businesses within the context of their societies. A subsequent objective is to craft a practical, standardized investment management mentoring program for people with feasible ideas to launch and sustain their companies effectively beyond current micro loans, incubators and innovation laboratories processes to make ventures more appealing to a larger pool of potential investors, including governments. Could standardized presentation settings for all citizens’ ideas to be heard for expert evaluation to foster a more democratic advancement for any new company’s development, helping level the playing field for all socio-economic classes to access financing, product and market development currently limited to the few? With capital sources knowing their funds are part of a well formulated, professionally monitored methodology to help assure an investment’s success, local
1.Primark market research understood that customers were in a high demand for cheap clothing. So, the company’s choice of outsourcing labour was chosen to cope with the demand. Providing ‘customers quality, up- tothe-minute designs at value for-money prices’ (Associated British Foods Annual report, 2013) 2.Primark uses technology and they understood that nowadays is fundamental to succeed. “Today, technology touches virtually every element of marketing, from digitally en-hanced advertisements to packaging, research, distribution, pricing and beyond” (Wood, M, 2013.p35) 3.Primark uses the brand onion, that is an effective tool, allowing marketers to evaluate the brands identity and how it is differentiates from its competitors, thus allowing
