J.C. Penney Back-to-School Teen Campaign May Be Too Ambitious To Make Sense
If nothing else this back-to-school season, J.C. Penney (JCP) is demonstrating that chasing down teenagers will be just as exhausting for retailers as it is for parents, but its multi-part marketing effort may prove so trying that, in the end, it won't be able to make heads or tails of the experience.
J.C. Penney's 2010 back-to-school program demonstrates just how determined the retailer is to reach teens. Just the number of initiatives suggests that it has anticipated the likelihood of a hot trend â€"- or trends â€"- going cold. For safety's sake, the retailers has come up with an angle on each teen subgroup it could identify to ensure its marketing campaign reaches everyone in them. Twice.
But in trying to avoid one kind of problem, Penney may have caused itself another. The beauty of alternative marketing campaigns is supposed to be the ability to track the market investment by employing Internet and mobile phone network data capture capabilities. J.C. Penney's efforts are so vast and interconnected â€"- visitors can click through a mobile website to reach "haul" videos on YouTube for instance â€"- that determining who was prompted to purchase by which initiative is going to be tough. Without that input, developing its next generation back-to-school effort might not represent refinement but educated guesswork of the kind that went into developing campaigns for such ancient media as magazines and network television.
Yet, J.C. Penney has demonstrated real commitment to reaching teenagers in the back-to-school selling season, the second most important after the end-of-year holiday period. Among its initiatives, mobile coupons and iPhone apps seem old school. Now, J.C. Penney employs a mobile site to let users the rate the outfits it offers (an example pictured) and interact in other unique ways, as well as link to the haul videos, which feature teens presenting what they've brought home from a shopping visit to Penney.
As my BNET colleague Carol Tice points out, chasing teens on something like their own terms comes with risks. The chance of a chill descending on the haul video trend, for example, is compounded by the reality that J.C. Penney is compensating the teen presenters to shop its stores. As that news makes the rounds, the peer credibility that made haul videos a hot ticket may evaporate and their popularity with it.
Still, in the back-to-school season, it's hard to fault J.C. Penney for making a comprehensive effort to reach teen consumers, one that also includes:
- A Seventeen magazine deal that makes J.C, Penney the exclusive retail partner for an augmented reality experience on the magazine website, one that allows users to virtually try on the retailer's apparel then link to jcp.com for purchase.
- An exclusive retail sponsorship of AOL's teen-oriented celebrity website Cambio designed to provide style insights and host a sweepstakes for Jonas Brothers concert tickets.
- Sponsorship, and radio, TV, Internet and email links to Supergirl Jam, an all-girl action sports competition, and the Dew Tour skate event in support of J.C. Penney brands Supergirl by Nastia, RS by Sheckler and Zoo York brands.
- Events and contests on J.C. Penney's JCP Teen Facebook page.
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