JCPenney’s ‘fair & square’ pricing strategy

JCPenney’s ‘fair & square’ pricing strategy appears to be part of a bigger ‘focus & simplify’ retail strategy and logically doesn’t seem radical or game changing in isolation. But with the broad promotions and personality branding, along with the future suggested changes in products and retail stores, JCP holds promise. As Ron Johnson articulated in the conclusion of the launch event - Every journey begins with a first step!

Marketers have long used pricing as a tool to signal quality. But with numerous promotional sales and discounts, it may become counterproductive. While prices ending in 0 are perceived to signal quality, based on psychology of pricing, marketers have used prices ending in 9 to signal discount. JCP has done away with $X.99 prices and has decided to round them to $(X+1).00 and has also limited the sales promotions to convey “We are a quality (not a discount) retailer”.

In addition, it has three types of pricing:

1. Everyday prices. These are not everyday low prices but just regular prices

2. Month-long values. These are better prices every month based on seasonal needs.

3. Best prices. These are technically clearance on 1^st and 3^rd Friday of every month.

It also promises consistent pricing strategy across all channels whether its in-store or online.

What does this mean to us as consumers? Zero price discrimination. Wow that sounds cool. But is it really good for consumers? It depends.

Will we buy an IZOD shirt from JCP for $40.00 at their new everyday price or wait for it to be on sale at Macy’s for $34.99 down from $60.00 original retail price?

It depends on how quick we need the shirt and whether we are willing to wait for a sale at Macys. So JCP may not really win customers from its competitors overnight, using this pricing strategy. But, it has the potential to attract the customers who are in immediate need and are willing to pay the everyday prices. In addition, the new return policy which allows customers to return any merchandise at any time for any reason, might provide JCP an advantage over its competitors.

The timing of the best prices is obviously linked with the bi-weekly pay checks of consumers. This is too naïve for us to figure out as clearance sale though JCP doesn’t want to label it so.

Over the past many years, we, as consumers, are accustomed to sales and discounts in retail stores. For some of us, buying a product on sale provides a sense of achievement. For others, it’s just doesn’t make any sense because you get used to those numerous sales and promotions. So the real question is does these sales and promotions change consumer buying behavior? An economist would say yes, since with changes in price, the quantity demanded changes. But as a marketer we are faced with the irrational consumer behavior.

Apparently for JCP, such promotions did not make big impact, as they ran 590 promotions in 2011 and the average number of customer visits was only 4, which implied 99% of times customers ignored those promotions. So they have decided to simplify and provide month-long promotions instead of a plethora of other promotions provided thus far (hourly bonus buys, weekly sales, daily sales, weekend sales, free shipping, in-store, online, department specific programs, loyalty, coupons, extra % savings, JCP Cash, credit card offers, clearance sales). This definitely provides a level playing field for all customers. But whether the price offered during that period is within the customers’ willingness to pay is something to watch out for; especially, when retailers are fiercely competing for market share by undercutting each other across brick and mortar stores and online channels.

Useful Technology Tips

Below are some great technology resources for just about everything from GMAC. GMAC is the owner and administrator of the GMAT® exam and creator of MBA.com.

Productivity Tools
• Online Stopwatch: A Simple, Fast Flash Online Stopwatch and Online Countdown timer always available when you need it. http://www.online-stopwatch.com
• Xobni: The free Outlook plug-in that makes searching and finding people and email faster and easier. http://www.xobni.com
• Evernote: Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like, then find them all on any computer or device you use. http://www.evernote.com
• Rememberthemilk: Manage tasks from anywhere. Has ability to sync anywhere. http://www.rememberthemilk.com
• Doodle: The world’s leading online scheduling tool, Doodle takes the pain out of finding the right date and time for a group of people to meet and makes scheduling virtually effortless. http://www.doodle.com

Common Task Applications
• faxZERO: Send a fax for free to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. http://faxzero.com
• CutePDF: Create PDF documents on the fly for free. http://www.cutepdf.com/index.htm
• Zamzar: Free online file conversion. http://www.zamzar.com
• EasyClean: searches the Windows registry for entries that are pointing nowhere. Also lets you delete all kinds of unnecessary files such as temps and backups. http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

File Sharing & Syncing Applications
• Pando: Use your existing email address to send and receive large files. Pando bypasses email attachment limits and is absolutely free. http://www.pando.com
• Google Docs: Create and edit web-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Store documents online and access them from any computer. http://docs.google.com
• YouSendit: File transfer and email service. Also offer secure and large file transfer. http://www.yousendit.com
• Drop: Use drop.io to privately share your files and collaborate in real time by web, email, phone, mobile, and more. Create each drop in two clicks and share what you want, how you want, with whom you want. http://drop.io
• Backpack: Backpack is a personal and small business information management, intranet, and to-do list organizer. http://www.backpackit.com
• Xmarks: Offers bookmark synchronization, search enhancement and web discovery based on sites bookmarked by users. http://www.xmarks.com
• Soocial: hassle-free contact management, seamlessly syncing contacts between a handful of potential buckets. http://www.soocial.com

Online Books & Media
• iGoogle Online Book: Google's collection of digitized books includes a large number of books related to Old English literature and language. Users can search for books by author. http://www.books.google.com/books
• Library: Features over 10000 online books free to the public. http://www.onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
• Many Books: Thousands of free e-books available in multiple formats for PDAs. http://www.manybooks.net

Text & URL Shortening Applications
• Tinyurl: Free URL redirection service. Turns a long URL into a much shorter one.http://www.tinyurl.com
• Tiny Paste: lets you take large amounts of text and put it all in one place, and then gives you a tiny url to share it with your friends. http://www.tinypaste.com
• Bit.ly http://www.bit.ly/
• Biturl.net http://biturl.net/

Translation Applications
• Yahoo: Babelfish: provides free online text and web page language translation tools! http://www.babelfish.yahoo.com
• Google Translate: free online language translation service instantly translates text and web pages. http://www.translate.google.com

Travel Sites & Applications
• 1-800-GOOG-411: http://www.google.com/goog411. Search business by name or category, connect for free.
• Orbitz Traveler Update: allows travelers to send in their reports for security line wait times at airports, how long taxi lines are, whether or not there’s short-term parking available (or Wi-Fi, for that matter), and anything noteworthy to travelers. Get flight status, weather reports, delay update and more. http://www.updates.orbitz.com/
• Googlemaps: Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. http://www.maps.google.com
• MizPee: “Where to go on the go.” Finds the closest, cleanest toilet and gives you entertaining reading material once you get there. Since the service is cell phone-based, it's always with you, when you really need it. http://www.mizpee.com
• Tripit: Free online trip planner and free travel itinerary website for organizing vacations, group trips or business travel. http://www.tripit.com
• Seat Guru: The ultimate source for airplane seating, in-flight amenities, and airline information. www.seatguru.com
• Yelp: is a Web 2.0 company that operates a social networking, user review, and local search web site of the same name. http://www.yelp.com

Browser Tools
• Google Chrome: is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. http://www.google.com/chrome
• Crawler Toolbar: Extend your Internet Explorer® or Mozilla Firefox® with free Crawler Toolbar. Have fun, enhance your browsing experience and protect your computer. http://www.crawler.com/products/toolbar.aspx
• Google Insights: With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. http://www.google.com/insights/search
• Space Time: displays all of your eBay search results in an easy to view elegant 3D arrangement. The days of mining through pages and pages of tiny. http://www.spacetime.com/home.php
• Google sites: Thinking of creating a website? Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share webpages. http://www.sites.google.com
• Quarkbase: provides an easier way to find website information. You can find out how good a site is, get comprehensive website details, discover competitors. http://www.quarkbase.com
• Website Grader: Free SEO tool from HubSpot that provides an Internet Marketing Report for your website. http://www.websitegrader.com
• Wayback Machine: puts the history of the World Wide Web at your fingertips. The Archive contains over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present. http://www.archive.org
• Netvibes: Leading personal start page to manage your digital life. Add widget to read your newspapers, play games, watch TV, movies, listen to podcasts..etc. http://www.netvibes.com
• Anyvite: Create free online invitations, invite friends to events, host a party, email invitation rsvp, guest list management, and much more. http://www.anyvite.comScreen Capture & Video Applications
• Screen-o-matic: the original free and easy way to create a video recording of your screen (aka screencast) and upload it for free. http://www.screencast-o-matic.com
• Google notebook: With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that's accessible from any computer. http://www.google.com/notebook
• Jing: capture anything you see on your computer screen and share it instantly...as an image or short movie. http://www.jingproject.com
• Animoto: music videos for your images, video clips and pictures. With high production value motion graphics synchronized to every beat of your music. http://www.animoto.com

Social Networking
• Yammer: a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question. http://www.yammer.com
• Lifehacker: Daily weblog on software and personal productivity recommends downloads, web sites and shortcuts that help you work smarter and save time.http://www.lifehacker.com
• Ning: An online service to create, customize, and share a social network.http://www.ning.com

Just for Fun
• Amazon Gift Organizer: the only tool you'll ever need to plan and track all your gift-giving. http://www.amazon.com/gp/gift-central/organizer
• Urban Dictionary: A searchable archive of contemporary American slang, listed in alphabetical order. Allows its users to create definitions for slang words and phrase. http://www.urbandictionary.com
• Shazam: Try Shazam the amazing music discovery engine. Search over 8 million artists, albums and track. http://www.shazam.com
• Blackberry Appworld: Download BlackBerry App World for free to load up your BlackBerry smartphone with games, social networking, shopping, productivity, organization and etc. http://www.blackberry.com/appworld
• Snopes: The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. http://www.snopes.com

Pittsburgh had put me in dark...LOL

...Spring had thrown lot of light on the streets of Pittsburgh...stealing the light out of my home - only to teach me one more lesson!

Well I am being exposed to lot of new kind of experience...just after a couple of days of the Smithfield Show...got to see lot of light in the morning today around 6:45 a.m. it seemed like a bright sunny day...came home today evening at 6:45 p.m. got a welcome note in my apartment...in terms of gloom...thought the electricity supply is cut.

Went out to see the neighbours...they were all illuminated n were sounding great music...then thought it could be some fuse out in my apartment alone...had been to friends place and went to nearby park with them for a while assuming my home will be lit up after a while...

When I came back found my roomie as well in the dark...he told me he had informed the emergency service...probably they will come to check it in 10 minutes...they did come & went back...my roomie then received a call...only to realise that we had not paid the dues...Electricity is a separate account to be paid to some other entity not related to the rental office...

So it was our fault to...but anyway got help from the neighbouring friends Anand & Saibal...went to their apartment had a wholesome dal & rice and the day went on...night came in...slept there...with the hope to get the electricity connection... right from next day...slept peacefully...

Steelers next lesson : Pay your dues on time :-)

Eloquence to Silence in a trice...

…Steelers had stolen my heart until today morning 8:40 & …Steelers have taught me the lesson of LIFE 'n' DEATH thereafter!

I was astounded this morning April 19th , 2007… well read on to find out what happened…

Yet another day in the pleasant city of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania in United States…
Tring tring tring …was not the alarm from the clock but was an offshore call on the Vonage phone; it was 7 a.m. got up to answer it & then took bath…diligently did my prayers as well it was 7:35 a.m. I didn't wanna rush to catch up the 7:40 a.m. bus so sat relaxed to have my breakfast…pure apple juice and bun & jam…well didn't feel like having the usual corn flakes (as milk was out of stock…LOL).

Managed to get out of my apartment at 7:57 a.m. to catch the 8:03 a.m. bus. After having travelled the meadows of the Greentree, reached the Pittsburgh DOWNTOWN around 8:35 a.m. I started walking towards William Penn Palace (its not the Royal abode;but my work place :-) housing Three Mellon Center…) completely unaware of what was in store for me.

With the 3 striped adidas cap on the head & the stylish black leather jacket on me…felt like a romeo ready to embrace the julliet (enormous opportunities that the US has in store for me…) in near future…was striding my feet steadily enjoying the bliss of spring on pittsburgh and on me as well in turn…have always felt good to have come here…

…at the cross roads of smithfield street…around 8:40 a.m. I am dumbstruck, speechless 'n' thereafter astounded to see people running back into nearby shops…after few rumbles…only to realize the sound that I had heard was GUNSHOTS…Hardly could I realize my state of mind… I was asked by my colleague, walking along with me to run into the RITE-AID pharmacy across the lane.

I did run with awe…to save my life… was stupefied on the event!

Well within fraction of seconds I could hear sirens of the Pittsburgh Police, Paramedics, District officials all getting into the street. They were all very prompt, only to see a person shot & injured very seriously & to rush him into hospital.

I did realize, then Steelers too are no exception to the fact that every coin has 2 sides. But they had taught me the lesson of LIFE 'n' DEATH!

Anything can happen anytime... Life is not immortal :-)

P.S: Steelers refers to the favourite sports team of Pittsburgh city & I have metaphored it to the 'People of Pittsburgh'.

FYR: http://kdka.com/local/local_story_109104908.html

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_503549.html

In Downtown Shooting :Someone shot a man in the 400-block of Smithfield Street just before 9am. Pittsburgh police are still looking for the gunman who shot a man in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh -- prompting a nearby day care center and a local university to declare a brief lockdown this morning. According to Pittsburgh police, the suspect walked up to a man in the 400-block of Smithfield Street and fired about seven shots. One eyewitness says the suspect ran towards another man, shot him, and continued to shoot after he fell to the ground.She ducked down when the shooter started running towards her car and called 911."The gunman ran back to Fourth Avenue where he got into a stolen blue Subaru and left the scene," Pittsburgh Police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki explained. Officials say the 27-year-old victim was taken to Mercy Hospital in critical condition.The shooting happened around 8:40am, as a number of pedestrians walked on the sidewalk nearby, including some parents dropping off their children at the Brightside Academy. "I'm not feeling real good about leaving my daughter at a daycare where a shooting just occurred right in front of me," Roberta Hubbard told KDKA.Since the shooting happened so close to Point Park University, the shooting prompted school officials to put its campus on a "partial lockdown" for a short time.

The ALCHEMIST

amazing was the alchemist...

key learnings so far!

---> DREAM yearn for ur dreams but also look after the basic responsibility
---> TAKE a RISK and start realising DREAM
---> "DONT PUT IT ON FATE "as years pass people start trusting on fate :-)

My first Post

hi everybody...

I am a person of kind willing to have all the people around me to care for me and i also care for them.Being a virgo i am a perfectionist,which hinders my relationship making me critical towards self and others!