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