Research

Our team has started to do research to know more about our Target Audience. We had to do observations over the Fall Break, and I went to the Roosevelt Field Mall  on Long Island with my mom. She needed to buy a coat, while I went around the store to see if I could observe people. Of the people I observed, three of them had wedding bands, two were with a friend or children, and one was alone. The one with the friend always listened to what the friend said, and they helped each other pick out clothing or other items. The women that was alone was looking at make-up. She would pick up the make up and try it on before using it, amd was very selective about what she was buying. The women who had the children was in the children section, but she was extrememly distracted and seemed to have touble picking out something while making sure her kids did not wonder too far. I found that interesting and wondered if there was a section for kids to go to while their mothers shopped. My mom found a coat that she liked, but there was no one around to help her at the register. There were not a lot of personal around on the floor either. The signs seemed to be confusing, and you could not tell which section you were in, since they did not seem to be very cohesive. I was annoyed that a personal was not around to help us, but my mom says that is regular occurance for JCPenney (as well as Macy's, she pointed out). The overall experience was ok, but most of the time the store was very confusing and uninviting to shop in.

I think the observations apply to our class because it helps the team to go to their own JCPenney stores and figure out what are the main problems that the store has. It also shows us what kind of research still needs to be done, since we are now going to implement surveys online, as well as focus groups and interviews. These three things along with the observations will be a great way to learn more about the women we are targeting. I find it interesting that we are trying to push these surveys through facebook, which could be a great way to get a lot of responses from these surveys. I hope that they do respond, and we can get the ball rolling on the other aspects of the campaign.

Bests,
Lisa

...What to do now?

Class has started to speed up. We have been discussing research, creatives, and just what we thought about JCPenney as a whole. Even during class, although we are discussing research methods and our SWOT, I still wonder what we should we doing next. I am itching to get into the more creative and planning side of things. I keep wondering...what is our team name? What is our big idea? Before we can dive into these ideas, research needs to be done.

Something the class came up with as a whole is that S.O.F.I.A is using JCPenney as a one stop shop for all her needs throughout the stages in her life. Now that we have the general theme, we had to look up some research on what customers and the brand already thought about the product. Many customers are dissatisfied with the store, mainly with the layout, the dirtiness, and the customer service. It is hard for us to change completely how the JCPenney employees are, but we can change the experience when a customer walks into the store. One idea we had was to seperate the different departments, either with different walls, rigs, or music, just to give a feel as if the customer is walking into a store within a store. I asked my mom what she though about JCPenney and although all of her experiences have been decent, she mostly used the catalog for ordering clothing. Whenever she did go into the store, the thing that turned her off the most to it was how disorganized it was all the time, even when it wasn't the holiday season. The team as a whole felt we had to try to get away from that department store feel and be more like a Macy's, high end but not that expensive. Putting too much emphasis on the low price could hinder their look, making them seem too cheap. The customers want cheap products, but ones that are still high end and an experience that makes you want to step into the store.

I feel that this is relevant to our coursework because we are trying to figure out how the target market really ticks, especially since we are not apart of that age group yet. We need to figure out these things before we really dive into the creatives, or else then we will not know how to move forward. Our target market needs to be able to look at our campaign and think, I want to shop there. We have to figure out how to draw these customers in, and this research can help us to put together the pieces of the puzzle. How can this help in the understanding of the course? Our ideas and our research put together can help us to grow as a team, and really set our minds to a specific task. We can see what works, what doesn't, and what information we really need to move forward. It is a tedious and sometimes boring task, but by doing so we are one step closing to the Big Idea that will put all of this rearch and ideas into focus. The next step is the primary research, which should be really interesting, especially to go out there and actually talk to the target audience.

Until then
Bests,
Lisa