MKT 501 Case mode 4 PRICING & MARKETING PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

PRICING & MARKETING PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
Required Reading/Resources
Reingold, J., Jones, M., & Kramer, S. (2014). How to fail in business while really, really trying. Fortune, 169 (5), 80.
Lublin, J. S., & Mattioli, D. (2013, Apr 09). Penney CEO out, old boss back in. Wall Street Journal (Online). Retrieved from ProQuest.
Glazer, E., Lublin, J. S., & Mattioli, D. (2013, Apr 9). Penney backfires on ackman. Wall Street Journal (Online). Retrieved from ProQuest.
D’Innocenzio, A. (2012, January 27). J.C. Penney slashing prices on all merchandise. USA Today. Retrieved from
https://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2012-01-25/penneys-price-overhaul/52787388/1
Reingold, J. (2012, March 19). Retail’s new radical. Fortune. Retrieved from https://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/07/jc-penney-ron-johnson/
Mattioli, D. (2012, January 26). J.C. Penney chief thinks different. Wall Street Journal.
Mattioli, D. (2012, January 25). How J.C. Penney was minted. Wall Street Journal.
There’s a lot going on at J.C. Penney in recent years. With a new CEO, J.C. Penney, confronted with pressing competition up, down, and sideways in the
department store wars, is reinventing itself in terms of merchandising, supply, and pricing strategies. Here we will concentrate only on the pricing aspects
of these new directions. However, this is ultimately about positioning; trying to find a space that is responsive to potential customers as well as
differentiating the Penney brand from Target, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, and Macy’s.
These articles shed additional light on the implications of Penney’s new direction:
Berfield, S. (2012, May 24), Remaking J.C. Penney Without Coupons. Bloomfield Business Week.Retrieved from
https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-24/remaking-j-dot-c-dot-penney-without-coupons
Girard, K. (2012, March 5). Is J.C. Penney’s makeover the future of retailing? Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Retrieved from
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6944.html
Halkias, M. (2011, December 7). J.C. Penney buys stake in Martha Stewart’s company. The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved from
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/20111207-j.c.-penney-buys-stake-in-martha-stewarts-company.ece
Timberlake, C., & Townsend, M. (2012, February 28). Macy’s says Martha’s dance card is too full.Business Week. Retrieved from
https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-28/macys-says-martha-stewarts-dance-card-is-too-full

Case Assignment
Make a well-written report with a brief introduction, headings or subheadings, and a brief concluding comment. Note that you should use some keywords as
headings or subheadings such as “Johnson’s pricing strategy,” instead of a sentence or a question. Read and cite article listed above, supplemented with any
other articles related to J.C. Penney, and develop a report addressing following issues.

Briefly describe Johnson’s pricing strategy, also providing background on the company and department store industry.
Explain why Johnson’s pricing strategy did not work. Support your position in terms of environmental factors such as economy, the competition, and
changing consumer behavior.
What do you think Johnson could have done better? Take into account J.C. Penney’s segmentation, positioning, and branding strategies to explain this issue.
Compare J.C. Penney’s current pricing strategy and Johnson’s pricing strategy, based on your research on the most recent situation of J.C. Penney. How do
you think J.C. Penney would perform in the next five years? Take into consideration the relationships between pricing and other aspects of the marketing
effort such as a change in merchandising, logo, atmospherics, use of celebrity spokespersons, and so on.
Assignment Expectations Regarding Your References and Defense of Your Positions

Write clearly, simply, and logically. Your paper should be 750-1500 words long, excluding title pages and references, but quality of writing is more
important than length. Use double-spaced, black Verdana or Times Roman font in 12 pt. type size.
Back up your positions or opinions with references to the required reading found in the Module 1-4 Background reading and Ongoing Useful Resources. In
using those references, demonstrate your understanding of the concepts presented. Rather than grading on how much information you find, emphasis will
be on the defense of the positions you take on the issues. Also remember that:
The “why” is more important than the “what.”
The defense of your positions on the issues is more important than the positions you take.
Do not repeat or quote definitions. Your use of the required reading to support your opinions (that is, contentions or positions) should demonstrate that you
understand the concepts presented. Do not include definitions or summaries of the readings or simply describe what the company did. Instead, your
responses to the questions should be analytical and should demonstrate that (a) you understand the principles from the background reading and (b) you can
apply them to this particular case. Vague, general answers will not earn a good grade.
Avoid redundancy and general statements such as “All organizations exist to make a profit.” Make every sentence count.
Paraphrase the facts using your own words and ideas, employing quotes sparingly. Quotes, if absolutely necessary, should rarely exceed five words.
When writing an academically oriented paper, you will uncover many facts about the product. If you paraphrase the facts, cite the sources in your text and
link those citations to references at the end of the paper.
Here are some guidelines on how to conduct information search and build critical thinking skills.
Emerald Group Publishing. (n.d.). Searching for information. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/study_skills/skills/searching.htm
Emerald Group Publishing. (n.d.). Developing critical thinking. Retrieved from
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/study_skills/skills/critical_thinking.htm
Guidelines for handling quoted and paraphrased material are found at:
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Academic writing. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/2/
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/563/1/
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Is it plagiarism yet? Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/02/
Your paper consists of arguments in favor of your opinions or positions on the issues addressed by the guidelines; therefore, avoid the following logical
fallacies:
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Logic in argumentative writing. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/01/

 

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.

God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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