J.C. Penney... Where's the fucking love?

News late last week that J.C. Penney's same-store sales are down, as the company revised its earnings projections due to less traffic in the first quarter. Less traffic... Does that mean the ads aren't working? What about all those "Lovemarks?" Does this mean Kevin Roberts will have to spend less time playing rugby and writing about all the five star hotels he's stayed in all over the fucking world, and now produce an effective campaign, instead of the uber-expensive "American Living" campaign, which was beautiful stuff... But for the J. C. Penney customer was as effective as Julie Roehm's upscale efforts for Wal-Mart.  Maybe he could persuade the "Red Wig Guys" to come back into the fold now that they've shot their load on that soccer boot video. All it takes is love... And a shitload of money! G'day!

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Paying attention, Kevin?

Comments

[Auntie Christ]

American Living = Polo wannabe. Who were they targeting with those commercials -- moms buying clothes for young people, or the young people themselves. You will NEVER get a 20 year old kid to walk into a JC Penney under his own power unless he's stoned. Forget buying his clothes there. Even the 40 year old milf sees herself as too hip to walk into Penney's. Maybe they should spin that brand off into it's own storefront, but that world is cluttered with GAP, American Eagle Outfitters, Abercrombie, Polo, Arizona Jean Company, on and on and on....

[Not that important but...]

Saatchi did not make those American Livings ads. Global Brand Concepts made those gems, which is a division of Polo Ralph Lauren...read your Ad Age more.

[George Parker]

not...etc... Don't fucking tell Kevin that... It'll be in Lovemarks II...
Cheers/George

[Tom Messner]

Suppose they re-named J.C. Penney the J.C. Penney Mall. (Mall being a euphemism for department store.) Then within the mall are boutiques that include names that un-stoned under 20s would adopt or possibly wear.
Times past, the only people who bought clothing at Abercrombie & Fitch were Ernest Hemingway and Isak Dinsesen; now I look at it as upscale pre-teen. Can't even remember what the jodphurs and shotguns and safari jackets looked like at Abercrombie on Madison and 44th Street so there's always hope for a retailer with patience.

[George Parker]

Tom...
"A retailer with patience" Isn't that an oxymoron?
Cheers/George

[Auntie Christ]

Tom, that happened around the early 90's. I remember it much like the Orvis store in midtown - $100 pair of pleated cords that the Gap had for $30. I'm reminded of how Timberland DIDN'T embrace the demographic that embraced it - rappers and innercity kids. Who knows where it could have gone if it did (Timba'land?).

[bg]

AC - Take the short term bump, sure, but build a brand around it, not sure I might. Although McDonald's seems to want to.

[Tom Messner]

RETAILERS' PATIENCE:
I once told Fred Pressman, son of Barney Pressman founder of Barney's that I re-named Barney's New York in 1978, that he had a 50-year marketing plan. Which required only that all the alte Kochers who remembered Select, Don't Settle and Calling All Men To Barney's passed away. Fred was a genius of merchandising and image, and had a remarkable sense of advertising...hiring Ed McCabe at this peak, Carl Ally at his, and earlier Jack Byrne and Steve Gordon and Steve Horn at theirs.
I was in Beverly Hills last week and saw the sign for Barneys New York...and went past remembering the great Fred Pressman and wondering what he would have thought of Barney's on Wilshir Boulevard and not on 7th Avenue and 17th Street.

[mookie]

so if we are to believe Kevin and his Saatchi brethren, all it takes to turn a brand today into a Love Mark is a nice 30 second spot? (and I do like the JC Penney tv work)
Is this 1998? Strike that. '88?
What else has Saatchi done for the brand since they launched the tv campaign? I haven't seen or heard anything.
This is why Saatchi sinking. They're stuck in the old model... TV script first, everything else 2nd.