Dive Brief:
- Expressing gratitude to its outgoing agency, Doner Detroit, J.C. Penney announced it has appointed mcgarrybowen as its agency of record.
- A Dentsu unit, mcgarrybowen will lead J.C. Penney’s push to position itself as a department store chain for middle-income shoppers.
- J.C. Penney also reassigned its digital and social media accounts to Narrative, a New York agency launched by Def Jam’s Russell Simmons in 2013.
Dive Insight:
Much of mcgarrybowen’s task is to refocus the Penney’s brand as a go-to department store for middle-income Americans. Doner’s two years of triage did not go unacknowledged, however; J.C. Penney thanked the agency for helping it reconnect with customers and staunch the slide it had experienced following a failed attempt from former CEO Ron Johnson to phase out discounts and deals.
Doner pointed to six consecutive quarters of same-store growth under its watch. Home Depot alumnus Marvin Ellison, name the chain’s CEO in July 2015, is working to improve the in-store experience and e-commerce capabilities.