February 11, 2015
Will Penney’s ‘best kept secrets’ drive growth?
In a partnership with InStyle magazine, J.C. Penney is planning to "boldly reinvent" its 850 salons across the country under a new "The Salon by InStyle" brand.
The concept is expected to drive frequent shoppers. Penney noted salon customers typically visit the store eight times a year and spend twice as much as the average customer. The contemporary upgrades, including modern wall textures and colors, are not aimed at the blue-haired crowd but "new and younger customers."
Amiee Thomas, VP of salon at J.C. Penney, said, "As more women experience the services provided at The Salon by InStyle, it will reinforce J.C. Penney as an all-inclusive destination for head-to-toe style."
InStyle editors will work with Penney’s stylists to identify fashion, hair and beauty trends and promote them in the salon’s styling books. The salon will also be marketed to InStyle’s magazine subscribers and social media followers.
"Beauty is a huge focus for our readers," said Ariel Foxman, editorial director, InStyle and StyleWatch, in a statement. "They spent over $2.1 billion on beauty products in the past year, equivalent to 9 percent of all spending on beauty in the U.S. We see this partnership as a way to extend our relationship with our consumer in a new, tangible way."
![[Image: Salon by InStyle]](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxIDEiIHdpZHRoPSIxIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEiIGRhdGEtdT0iJTJGcHVibGljJTJGaW1hZ2VzJTJGZGlzY3Vzc2lvbnMlMkYxODA3NCUyRnBlbm5leS1pbnN0eWxlLXN0aWxsLmpwZyIgZGF0YS13PSIxIiBkYXRhLWg9IjEiIGRhdGEtYmlwPSIiPjwvc3ZnPg==)
The salon transformation will be piloted at 15 locations across Chicago, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles this summer before rolling out nationwide in 2016.
In a similar move, Penney in 2001 rebranded its bridal jewelry line under the name Modern Bride in an alliance with Condé Nast. Its move in 2006 to introduce Sephora in-store beauty shops has been one of its few recent successes. On the company’s third-quarter conference call, CEO Mike Ullman said Sephora "continues to deliver double-digit growth, drive traffic and generate significant customer loyalty."
He pointed to Sephora and Modern Bride along with its exclusive Liz Claiborne brand, MNG by Mango, Call It Spring by Aldo and Royal Velvet as the attractions that "differentiate us from our peers."
J.C. Penney currently employs 13,500 stylists and assistants who serve nearly three million clients and provide approximately 10 million services a year. Over the past two years, it has added more than 50 artistic design leaders, which support training to stylists across salons. Ms. Thomas told The Associated Press, "We believe the salons are our best kept secrets."
- JC Penney Partners With InStyle To Roll Out An Entirely New Salon – J.C. Penney
- J.C. Penney’s retail recovery focus: your hair – The Associated Press/Crain’s Chicago Business
- JC Penney’s next big bet a bit of a head scratcher – CNBC
- JCPenney Announces New Salon Concept and Partnership with InStyle – Modern Salon
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Are younger women open to getting their hair done in department stores? Will the InStyle connection do much to support the hair salon business and Penney’s positioning in fashion and beauty?
Poll
My gosh, I can remember going to a department store to get a haircut a gazillion years ago—once, out in Denver.
I can’t imagine today’s Millennials will be excited about the prospect.
Hey, nothing goes better then a new hair style and some new shoes, blouses and more. A new hairstyle drives new sales. J.C. Penney’s, like Macy’s, is not a department store. That name is old—like department stores. They are full service or head-to-toe fashion centers.
The department store of yesterday is gone. To me, Sears was a tool center and a great place to get tools. They were not a department store.
Super move by Penney’s and the next test is in HOW they market it. If they can market it the right way then the Millennials will consider shopping. Add some “do the hair, get 30 percent off” coupons and solid internet connections in the salons, that will help. Instagram out your new look and go shopping.
I would also add a new look fashion advisor to the salon, or ask Ulta to open up a “look desk” within the salon. Get the whole ball of a new look into one room. The NEW Penney’s—makin’ you look NEW!
Go for it gang!
With the InStyle and Sephora brands tying in together, this move makes a great deal of sense. J.C. Penney and the shopper should mix well. J.C. Penney performs very well in meeting the needs of Generation X and Generation Y for cosmetics and with baby gear—value, quality and selection are the leading reasons based on the November Prosper Monthly Consumer Survey.
With the younger women in the store for Sephora goods—10 percent of married Millennials state that they have visited Sephora in the past 90 days for HBA goods, and 9.4 percent of married Generation X folks have made that trek during the time period—J.C. Penney and InStyle have a customer base walking the store. Perfect for building frequency and cross-shopping. Both of those figures top Ulta, which also have salons in many of their stores.
My only question : Why didn’t J.C. Penney leverage its Sephora success by co-branding its hair salons with a concept that is already drawing younger customers into its stores?
I actually think this is a huge idea for J.C. Penney. They’ll have the opportunity to promote their new salons heavily, and potentially boost revenues from their small Sephora outlets at the same time. Great idea.
InStyle can be considered the Bible of style for many. It’s on the magazine racks, in the salons visited by all who visit any salon, for hair or nails, etc. Furthermore their website, which has a tremendous following, does deep dives on fashion trends that include hair styles. So InStyle’s endorsement for Penney’s salons will be huge. Let’s be real, younger women will go wherever they feel good looks await them.
It is not new. It is a rebranding of something that has been in place for years, albeit somewhat unsuccessful. Are the Millennials interested in getting their hair done at Penney’s? Only time will tell. Based on Penney’s past something good has to happen for them. Maybe this will be a step in that direction.
J.C. Penney needs to take care of core issues like pricing and perceived quality of products offered before diving into concept retailing. RadioShack opened plenty of “concept stores” in Manhattan last quarter and look where they are now.
Macy’s offers hair salons at select locations and do a better job pulling in the socialite crowd that will actually buy the evening gowns Macy’s has to offer. J.C. Penney has a long way to go before delving into concept retailing models.
When I read JCPenney and InStyle then saw the pictures that look like a factory salon, my first thought was a new version of Super Cuts.
I will give credit for a good thought. Especially with the success of Sephora, but this is a very big leap from there. Who is the JCPenney customer? Maybe not all blue hairs, but a far cry from the typical InStyle magazine readers?
Now, if they brand it as a new twist on Super Cuts, hip, chic and cheap? Maybe…
For my 2 cents.
It all sounds good. The salons seem to be in low traveled corners of the stores, and would be easily missed unless a customer knew about them. Not even within eyesight of Sephora, in any locations I’ve been to.
Younger women don’t really shop JCP to begin with. The positioning is wrong here. This may make sense to cater to the core older JCP demographic but until they fix their service, mix, and marketing I don’t see younger customers doing much at JCP other than Sephora or kids clothes.
Always interesting when management presents fuzzy metrics like salon customers visit x times per year and spend y % more than average. Grain of salt rule….
If only they would tell us (just 3 of the 9 identifiable responses are women). I suspect few younger women are…or even older women, but that rather misses the point. With (only) 3M visits a year out of population of 150M they only need to appeal to a tiny slice of the better half to be successful.
Whether/not this is the right approach I don’t know, but obviously they need to experiment—any retailer should, a “struggling” one like JCP must—so unless the effort is absurd, I’m willing to applaud the effort.
J.C. Penney’s salon business has continued to fly under the radar, even as it generates surprising volume. Penney’s hook-ups with InStyle and Modern Bride are great examples of the growing number of content-rich partnerships that synergize digital, print and physical retail. J.C. Penney is making some great decisions when it comes to leveraging its core assets.
Interesting, but I think it’s more of a ‘ho hum’ than an ‘Oh, Wow!’ A better bet would be to “boldly reinvent” their fitting room experience.
They are, for the most part, selling apparel and the fitting room is where their customers are making their buying decisions. The #1 way to improve apparel conversion is to get customers into the fitting room.
Committing resources to fitting room design, service, and technology that support the brand promise and promotes customer engagement will provide ROI by improving KPIs and customer loyalty.
Bottom line—apparel retailers need to embrace this truth: if you’re in the business of selling apparel, you’re in the fitting room business. Creating a fitting room environment that is pleasant and easy for your customers to buy is job one.
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My gosh, I can remember going to a department store to get a haircut a gazillion years ago—once, out in Denver.
I can’t imagine today’s Millennials will be excited about the prospect.
Hey, nothing goes better then a new hair style and some new shoes, blouses and more. A new hairstyle drives new sales. J.C. Penney’s, like Macy’s, is not a department store. That name is old—like department stores. They are full service or head-to-toe fashion centers.
The department store of yesterday is gone. To me, Sears was a tool center and a great place to get tools. They were not a department store.
Super move by Penney’s and the next test is in HOW they market it. If they can market it the right way then the Millennials will consider shopping. Add some “do the hair, get 30 percent off” coupons and solid internet connections in the salons, that will help. Instagram out your new look and go shopping.
I would also add a new look fashion advisor to the salon, or ask Ulta to open up a “look desk” within the salon. Get the whole ball of a new look into one room. The NEW Penney’s—makin’ you look NEW!
Go for it gang!
With the InStyle and Sephora brands tying in together, this move makes a great deal of sense. J.C. Penney and the shopper should mix well. J.C. Penney performs very well in meeting the needs of Generation X and Generation Y for cosmetics and with baby gear—value, quality and selection are the leading reasons based on the November Prosper Monthly Consumer Survey.
With the younger women in the store for Sephora goods—10 percent of married Millennials state that they have visited Sephora in the past 90 days for HBA goods, and 9.4 percent of married Generation X folks have made that trek during the time period—J.C. Penney and InStyle have a customer base walking the store. Perfect for building frequency and cross-shopping. Both of those figures top Ulta, which also have salons in many of their stores.
My only question : Why didn’t J.C. Penney leverage its Sephora success by co-branding its hair salons with a concept that is already drawing younger customers into its stores?
I actually think this is a huge idea for J.C. Penney. They’ll have the opportunity to promote their new salons heavily, and potentially boost revenues from their small Sephora outlets at the same time. Great idea.
InStyle can be considered the Bible of style for many. It’s on the magazine racks, in the salons visited by all who visit any salon, for hair or nails, etc. Furthermore their website, which has a tremendous following, does deep dives on fashion trends that include hair styles. So InStyle’s endorsement for Penney’s salons will be huge. Let’s be real, younger women will go wherever they feel good looks await them.
It is not new. It is a rebranding of something that has been in place for years, albeit somewhat unsuccessful. Are the Millennials interested in getting their hair done at Penney’s? Only time will tell. Based on Penney’s past something good has to happen for them. Maybe this will be a step in that direction.
J.C. Penney needs to take care of core issues like pricing and perceived quality of products offered before diving into concept retailing. RadioShack opened plenty of “concept stores” in Manhattan last quarter and look where they are now.
Macy’s offers hair salons at select locations and do a better job pulling in the socialite crowd that will actually buy the evening gowns Macy’s has to offer. J.C. Penney has a long way to go before delving into concept retailing models.
When I read JCPenney and InStyle then saw the pictures that look like a factory salon, my first thought was a new version of Super Cuts.
I will give credit for a good thought. Especially with the success of Sephora, but this is a very big leap from there. Who is the JCPenney customer? Maybe not all blue hairs, but a far cry from the typical InStyle magazine readers?
Now, if they brand it as a new twist on Super Cuts, hip, chic and cheap? Maybe…
For my 2 cents.
It all sounds good. The salons seem to be in low traveled corners of the stores, and would be easily missed unless a customer knew about them. Not even within eyesight of Sephora, in any locations I’ve been to.
Younger women don’t really shop JCP to begin with. The positioning is wrong here. This may make sense to cater to the core older JCP demographic but until they fix their service, mix, and marketing I don’t see younger customers doing much at JCP other than Sephora or kids clothes.
Always interesting when management presents fuzzy metrics like salon customers visit x times per year and spend y % more than average. Grain of salt rule….
If only they would tell us (just 3 of the 9 identifiable responses are women). I suspect few younger women are…or even older women, but that rather misses the point. With (only) 3M visits a year out of population of 150M they only need to appeal to a tiny slice of the better half to be successful.
Whether/not this is the right approach I don’t know, but obviously they need to experiment—any retailer should, a “struggling” one like JCP must—so unless the effort is absurd, I’m willing to applaud the effort.
J.C. Penney’s salon business has continued to fly under the radar, even as it generates surprising volume. Penney’s hook-ups with InStyle and Modern Bride are great examples of the growing number of content-rich partnerships that synergize digital, print and physical retail. J.C. Penney is making some great decisions when it comes to leveraging its core assets.
Interesting, but I think it’s more of a ‘ho hum’ than an ‘Oh, Wow!’ A better bet would be to “boldly reinvent” their fitting room experience.
They are, for the most part, selling apparel and the fitting room is where their customers are making their buying decisions. The #1 way to improve apparel conversion is to get customers into the fitting room.
Committing resources to fitting room design, service, and technology that support the brand promise and promotes customer engagement will provide ROI by improving KPIs and customer loyalty.
Bottom line—apparel retailers need to embrace this truth: if you’re in the business of selling apparel, you’re in the fitting room business. Creating a fitting room environment that is pleasant and easy for your customers to buy is job one.