JCPenney 2011 Annual Report Download - page 4

4
Dear Fellow Stockholders,
In 1902, retail revolutionary
James Cash Penney created a
new kind of store based on the
Golden Rule. He would treat
customers the way he wanted
to be treated himself: Fair and
Square. It’s a simple idea – the
most powerful ideas always are – and it’s the basis
on which we are going to reclaim our birthright
and become America’s favorite store.
In recent years, the conventional wisdom – “the rules
of retail” – has prevented the industry from evolving
to customer preferences. As times change however,
the needs of customers change and we need to
respond with an infusion of new ideas.
One of the key challenges is, how do you take a
110-year-old company and make it relevant? That’s
why we’re rethinking and re-imagining every aspect
of our business, throwing open the windows and
letting in some fresh air.
While 2011 was a year of transition, 2012 will be a
year of transformation. We’re enhancing our profit
formula so that we can reward stockholders with
significant financial performance over the long term.
In January, we unveiled the blueprint for the new
jcpenney, which honors our rich legacy while setting
a path to boldly transform the way America shops.
In some ways, it is a return to the golden age of
department stores, when retailers oered truly
special experiences that customers loved. Our new
strategy brings the spirit of those great department
stores back for our customers in new, modern and
exciting ways.
Our customers began to experience some of these
changes on February 1st as we took the first step
in our transformation. We will continue to roll out
new initiatives over the next few years, so that by
2015, shopping at jcpenney will be unlike any retail
experience that exists today. There is a lot of work
to be done in a short amount of time, but we are
making great strides in our seven key areas of focus:
personality, price, promotion, product, presentation,
place and people.
personality
We revitalized the jcpenney brand and projected a
new personality that honors our century-old legacy.
Our new logo is a key element of that personality. It’s
fresh, iconic and evocative of everything we stand
for: Fair and Square. We’re also transforming how
we communicate with customers and have enlisted a
fantastic new brand partner, Ellen DeGeneres, to help
us in this eort.
price
Plagued by the “games” of the industry over the
last several decades, retailers – including jcpenney
– barraged customers with a constant stream of
promotions that proved to be ineective. Each
time we participated in this pricing war, we were
discounting our brand and eroding the trust and
loyalty of our customers.
Those days are over at jcpenney – we’re pricing in a
straightforward way. A fundamental element of our
new strategy is to price merchandise from Day 1 at the
price customers have already demonstrated they were
willing to pay.
And we’re making it simple. With our new Fair
and Square™ pricing, we have three types of prices:
Everyday, Month-long and Best. That’s it. Clean.
Simple. Honest value.
creating
America’s favorite store