jcpenney

New:  Leader, merchandising strategy, brandmark (and corporate signature)

Launched:  January 25, 2012;  February 1 in stores

Story in brief:
Just eleven months ago, in February 2011, you will recall, JCPenney rebranded (designed by student Luke Langhus, who was surprised but gracious to hear that his work is now history).  Then in June, it was announced that effective November 1, Penney's CEO Mike Ullman would be replaced by Ron Johnson, the Target alumnus who had built and run the (superbly designed) Apple stores. 

Johnson did not wait until November 1. He already knew that a significantly  changed merchandising strategy would be required, and sensed that a rebranding (yet another one, a bolder one) could signal, accelerate, and  even lead the needed strategic repositioning.  So brandadvisors got the call from jcpenney in September, according to president and founder Charles Rashall (who says it's a coincidence that both firms now choose to lower-case their names. Friendlier, he thinks, but as Forum readers know it drives me nuts.)  Why brandadvisors? Johnson chose them because he liked their work for  Stanford Hospital & Clinics, on whose board he serves.  

 The assignment as given:

Create an iconic mark. Break away from "namesake signature" marks – e.g. Sears, Macy's, Penney (Target being the exception) – to make a more distinctive mark, ideally one with "a story" (lacking, it was felt, in the 2011 logo)

Consider the power and value of the square. There are other square marks in retail (notably Gap) yet "no one truly owns it."  

According to Rashall, Johnson's vision was "compelling – indeed, a re-imagination of the retail category.  Our task was to develop the brand positioning that would need to inform and guide the design process," he writes. "We then sought to understand how and why a square could work so well to become the brand icon and why it was appropriate for jcp.  Our brand positioning, insights on the metaphorical and literal value of the square, and a respect for the heritage brand led us to where we ended up."  Thus, brandadvisors would assert "square" visually, and build stories around it  – square deal, fair and square, town square –  signaling simplicity and  straightforwardness.

 To create this more "iconic" brandmark, brandadvisors stripped away the Penney name, and re-parked it in a separate corporate logo.  The heritage red square became an open red frame, with "jcp" on a blue field tucked into its corner like the field of stars in an American flag (linked conceptually to James Cash Penney's vision of  "a store for all Americans.") The frame itself(sans jcp) then became available as a graphic or sculptural device to be used to frame messages and merchandise.

The dramatically staged January 25 launch event used the new logo to leverage perception of a comprehensively transformed enterprise, with "fair and square" pricing and a fundamentally different retail experience.

Credits:
C.E.O. - Ron Johnson
Identity counsel and design - brandadvisors
 

Johnson at the launch

First Impressions:
Strategy:  Whatever else is said, it's a great example of the use of a rebranding, by a leader, to make change happen.  That said, "square" feels to me more like a campaign idea than a lasting identity. (Responding to this, Rashall notes  that "it's important to distinguish between 'the square' as a secondary graphic and 'the identity,' which is a square within a square and has the jcp brand mark.")
The relationship between "jcp" and "jcpenney," brand voice versus corporate voice, now becomes somewhat tenuous; indeed, the jcpenney wordmark cannot be found on the website launched February 1.
And though Penney may have research to the contrary, I'm still pretty sure most people will continue to call it "Penney's" rather than "jcp." To seem to discourage this is to risk weakening the brand (though  the campaign itself may well succeed; it's a tradeoff).
Design:  In contrast to retail brands that seek elegance (like Saks by Pentagram), this one's a sledgehammer.  As a frame waiting to be filled, it is more conceptual than purely visual; it does 'pop,' but it is perhaps more successful as a story-telling device than as an icon.

Store entrance, showing squares as frames