
JCP Rebrand Disaster: Failure To Launch Could Have Been Avoided
When I first saw the wave of witty and snarky TV ads rebranding JCP from J.C. Penney, I was fascinated that an old-fashioned company could remake themselves and even use Ellen DeGeneres as their pitchperson. What a far cry from their stodgy reputation of yore. The ads, in heavy network rotation, made fun of complicated and gimmicky sales used by other major retailers (JCP itself used to have 600 offers a year). They were funny and well done. The takeaway was that J.C. Penny,