One of the most important aspects to learn in strategizing is the fact that companies are different and the approaches used in solving certain challenges in one will not exactly work for another. In trying to incorporate strategies that perfectly worked in Apple Inc. into JC Penny, Ron Johnson makes the struggling company even worse. To save the company from the mistakes incurred in pricing, branding, placement as well as online shopping aspects, there are a few strategies that can be incorporated to ensure the different segments of the failing company are back to normal. A change plan analysis, hence, needs to focus on the different challenges with a bid to develop a comeback strategy that is unique to JC Penny and its operations.
Strengthening the brand of JC Penny was more important than redefining it. This is because JC Penny is not a startup and hence changing aspects such as the brand might conflict with aspects such as the vision as well as the mission of the company (Sacks, 2013). To correct the above mistake, aspects that strengthen the brand should be incorporated in the marketing strategy. To do this, the company needs to focus more on its operation niche in terms of the customer it serves, set itself apart by choosing the best pricing strategy, be socially responsible among others.
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In changing different JC penny’s stores to be more appealing to the customers, one big aspect that has not been taken into consideration is the customer base served (Tuttle, 2013). Being a retail shop, although aspects such as Wi-Fi could attract customers, there is more to that than just an environment that encourages a hype of activists. The company needs to consider aspects that attracts all demographics since a retail store serves all ages as well as races. Aspects such as better shopping experience should hence be the best incorporation into the business.
Pricing strategy is one of the most important aspect that determines the competitiveness of a business, especially a retail shop that has a variety of competitors in its market segment. Instead of replacing the discount and coupons with a full but fair price, it is important to first consider the benefits as well as the disadvantages that such discounts have had on the store as well as the customers. It is important to get customer’s review on the pricing aspect before making a major shift. After analyzing the reviews as well as considering the losses as well as the mass of people the discounts attract, it is important to slightly adjust it in a way that the shift is not evident to a large extent. Reducing the discount on a few products and adding to others that are unlikely to affect the process of profit maximization, is for example an example of an undertaking the company could try so as to solve the issue.
Just like a startup, strategy testing should be one of the undertakings that is embraced by an organization before incorporating major changes in how it functions. JC penny’s needs to strategize while using blueprints of the actual strategy to test their effectiveness as well as compatibility. Pivoting should be a major element in testing the strategy so as to ensure mistakes are corrected earlier before they escalate. In strategizing, aspects such as online shopping should be made more of customer centric and perfected for the purposes of attracting customers again. Although the company should learn from the giants in this field such as Amazon, it should not implement its strategies step by step as the companies serve different customer segments.
In conclusion, although there are grave mistakes that Ron Johnson made in trying to shape up the operation of JC penny, there are still strategies that can be implemented to affect the pricing, branding, placement as well as strategy testing to ensure that the business comes back on tract.
References
Tuttle, B. (2013, April 09). The 5 Big Mistakes That Led to Ron Johnson’s Ouster at JC Penney. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from http://business.time.com/2013/04/09/the-5-big-mistakes-that-led-to-ron-johnsons-ouster-at-jc-penney/
Sacks, D. (2013, April 10). Ron Johnson's 5 Key Mistakes At JC Penney, In His Own Words. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3008059/ron-johnsons-5-key-mistakes-jc-penney-his-own-words
