For weeks we’ve been listening to screaming customers who
have missed out on super savings because their circular didn’t arrive on time
or they forgot that this weekend their favorite retailer was offering 40%
off. Thankfully, these annoying screams
have passed away into advertising purgatory:
jcp, as it’s now called, has finally embarked on its new campaign: Fair
and Square Pricing.
Red is for “everyday prices—our regular prices, which are
always great”; White is for
“month-long values, even better prices on the things you need now”; Blue is for
“best prices, our lowest prices always happen on the 1st and 3rd
Fridays of every month while they last.”
The three kinds of pricing are coupled with one “happy” return
policy: “any item, anywhere, it’s that
simple.”
Well, I wish the pricing policy were as simple as the return
policy.
Full disclosure: When
I was in college, I worked for J.C. Penney, first in appliances, then in
notions and sewing supplies, then in domestics.
I think I worked in these departments because I understood math and
could figure out installment plans and fractions. J.C. Penney sold yardage then. I wore a simple black dress and nylons
(required), pulled my very long hair up into a bun, and proudly displayed my
name tag that had the simple suggestion:
“Like it, charge it.”
Like the simple tagline, J.C. (C for Cash) Penney had pretty
clear positioning then—as clear to me as a grade school kid as it was as a
college kid: good quality at an
affordable price. Plain and simple.
Nothing is as plain and simple anymore, so I applaud jcp in
recognizing that retailing is in flux, as evidenced by this full-page ad run in
the New York Times on Wednesday, February 1, which I quote in full:
In praise of
fresh air
This
year, we turn 110.
We’re
fine with growing old.
We’re
not fine with growing stale.
So,
to celebrate, we’re going to throw open
the
windows and let in some fresh air.
We’re
thinking and reimagining,
And
if we find that we’ve picked up
Any
bad habits over the decades,
We’re
going to leave them far behind.
We’re
simply going to treat people
as
we’d like to be treated ourselves.
Fair
and square.
We
won’t make anyone jump
through
hoops to get a good price.
We won’t fill
mailboxes with junk.
We’ll
have great prices every day and
spectacular
prices that last a whole month.
And
it won’t stop there.
We’re
dreaming up new ways
to
make you love shopping again,
matching
our calendar
to
the rhythm of your life.
Because
we’re not interested in being
the
biggest store or the flashiest store.
We
want to be your favorite store.
Besides from the unnecessary swipe at the
catalog and direct mail business—which has, incidentally, made J.C. Penney piles
of money—this manifesto of change disturbs me because jcp needs to earn its
right to become my “favorite store.” And
it won’t do that by making me “love shopping again.” It will allow me to discover that shopping is
simple, that the pricing is fair, and that I will choose whether or not to shop at
jcp. Somehow jcp has not yet figured out
that the customer wants to be—and increasingly is—in control.
Much of this positioning is too cutesy and too
complicated when it could have been simple and great. For example, does anyone of you really understand
this pricing structure at first glance? Why
can’t we have spectacular prices every day?
I expect white sales in January; is that my rhythm or the department
stores’? And what does fresh air have to
do with any of it? Or jcp tv videos for
that matter, which are simply links to ads featured on You Tube.
Would that jcp picked up the good habits of
the past and returned to quality first at a fair price. And, if the pricing were as straightforward
as the simple, somewhat nostalgic advertising pieces they’re showcasing, then
maybe I might give them the chance to prove that they’re being “fair and
square.”
The jcp campaign tells us as much about
retailing in general as it does about the need for this 100 year old retailer
to carve out yet another new niche.
