JC Penny's stock (down)

[Groo]

Originally Posted by Gildere_XD

You're ignoring the demographic of people who aren't gay, but support gay rights and are willing to vote with their dollar to support that. I'm in that group. The door swings both ways.

I think it's just a fundamental difference between groups of people. You see it as being politically correct, they see it as an equal rights issue. The fact of the matter is, if you're gay you are legally at a disadvantge in many situations where a straight person wouldn't be. Can you blame them for fighting to change that?

Fact of the matter is the gay rights movement is on the upswing. Within 10 years sexual orientation is going to be a protected class, and gay marriage will be legal. JCpenny's is playing the long game by buying into and supporting them now.

Listen, I really don't care how your door swings. That's between you and your door swinger.

Pandering strongly to 1 very small group in hopes of picking up sales is not brave action toward equal rights. Its taking the stance that you are willing to be hyper PC with how you spend other peoples money, and ignoring the likely sales implications. At the very least, they were completely ignoring demographic information that should be readily available to these decision makers. Wishful thinking is rarely a good sales strategy.

[knfxda]

Yeah, but who reads this:

Shares of retailer J.C. Penney plunged 8.6% Tuesday, as the departure of its president after less than nine months on the job cast fresh doubts on the company's new marketing strategy.
The drop sent J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500) shares to $22.25 at Tuesday's close, down 36.7% year to date.

And then injects their own moral indignation about something unrelated (a one-off add campaign)? The "marketing strategy" has to do with no "sales", but instead a form of "everyday low prices".

Companies like JC Penney, KMart and the like have been on a long, slow, painful downslide since companies like WalMart, Target, and to a smaller degree Kohls have emerged.

[partdeux]

This was a flawed marketing strategy from it's inception.

WRT taking stances on polarizing social issues, it's a very risky move for any company. Neutral and watered down is better than 10 bad positions, but not as good as the one edgy campaign.

[SonOfOdin]

Originally Posted by Gildere_XD

You're ignoring the demographic of people who aren't gay, but support gay rights and are willing to vote with their dollar to support that. I'm in that group. The door swings both ways.

I think it's just a fundamental difference between groups of people. You see it as being politically correct, they see it as an equal rights issue. The fact of the matter is, if you're gay you are legally at a disadvantge in many situations where a straight person wouldn't be. Can you blame them for fighting to change that?

Fact of the matter is the gay rights movement is on the upswing. Within 10 years sexual orientation is going to be a protected class, and gay marriage will be legal. JCpenny's is playing the long game by buying into and supporting them now.

Once again society spoke about this issue with their wallets. And yet again, we see someone complaining that society is sooo horrendous for not wanting to accept an ideology that goes against what the majority of the country believes in.

Nobody cares about the sub percentage of the percentage. The fact that this marketing strategy has failed is proof that there is not money to be made in catering to a sub minority while snubbing the rest of the customer base. That is just bad business and marketing all around. If you alienate your customer base at its widest point by introducing something that none of them want you WILL NOT MAKE PROFIT FOR GAIN FROM THE LOSSES OF THE CUSTOMER BASE PROFIT.

I am sure that if they introduced a line of wear that is emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle and marketed as the new hip thing, it will also plummet. Sales will not take off and the customer base (the main source of profit) will probably take their business elsewhere. So, all the money put into marketing this new line, and the overall profit relying on its success, die's two fold because of its failure and the profit lost on top of it from the successful lines.

So stop crying about the poor homosexuals rights. This business failure is purely about poor marketing and not bashing on gays. So take your crap elsewhere.

BTW: I have a degree in business and marketing/economics are a core part of my training and learning. I have developed my own marketing strategy for a theoretical small business. It was successful.

[memo]

So uh, I hate to bring logic and reason into this otherwise heartwarming conversation, but:

• The president leaves the company and company stock falls on the same day.
• The company happens to have run a same-sex couple ad several days prior.
• The stock didn't fall sharply in the days and weeks after the Father's Day aired (major news picked it up no later than June 5).
• The stock instead fell sharply on Tuesday when the president stepped down.

People are blaming the two-dads ad? "i guess that gay married father's day couple sells pitch ad didn't do nearly as well as expected!"

I think there is some fundamental misunderstanding about cause and effect going on here.

[SonOfOdin]

Originally Posted by memo

So uh, I hate to bring logic and reason into this otherwise heartwarming conversation, but:

• The president leaves the company and company stock falls on the same day.
• The company happens to have run a same-sex couple ad several days prior.
• The stock didn't fall sharply in the days and weeks after the Father's Day aired (major news picked it up no later than June 5).
• The stock instead fell sharply on Tuesday when the president stepped down.

People are blaming the two-dads ad? "i guess that gay married father's day couple sells pitch ad didn't do nearly as well as expected!"

I think there is some fundamental misunderstanding about cause and effect going on here.

+1.

[Groo]

I got the impression (very possibly wrong) that the guy who stepped down championed this ad campaign despite being told its a no-go.

[SonOfOdin]

Originally Posted by Groo

I got the impression (very possibly wrong) that the guy who stepped down championed this ad campaign despite being told its a no-go.

I also got the same impression. Even if it was not him the marketing ploy still failed miserable. Maybe there is a relation between its failure and him stepping down??

[Ridge]

Originally Posted by knfxda

Yeah, but who reads this:



And then injects their own moral indignation about something unrelated (a one-off add campaign)? The "marketing strategy" has to do with no "sales", but instead a form of "everyday low prices".

Companies like JC Penney, KMart and the like have been on a long, slow, painful downslide since companies like WalMart, Target, and to a smaller degree Kohls have emerged.

Originally Posted by memo

So uh, I hate to bring logic and reason into this otherwise heartwarming conversation, but:

• The president leaves the company and company stock falls on the same day.
• The company happens to have run a same-sex couple ad several days prior.
• The stock didn't fall sharply in the days and weeks after the Father's Day aired (major news picked it up no later than June 5).
• The stock instead fell sharply on Tuesday when the president stepped down.

People are blaming the two-dads ad? "i guess that gay married father's day couple sells pitch ad didn't do nearly as well as expected!"

I think there is some fundamental misunderstanding about cause and effect going on here.

+1 x2: I really doubt the President had much to do with any ad campaign; Other than screaming for more sales. IMHO, they're just grasping at straws trying to gain any new business.

[HowardMan]

Originally Posted by SonOfOdin

I also got the same impression. Even if it was not him the marketing ploy still failed miserable. Maybe there is a relation between its failure and him stepping down??

yeah, thats the way it seems to me as well. i'd say he put all his chips in and the cards didnt come up his way so it was time to go. jcp has been interesting lately and it seems like it'll be a great example on how to turn a company around or a glaring example of what not to do. (i have a mkt degree too so this stuff interests the hell out of me)