So, we all know by now that $AAPL ‘s Ron Johnson is taking over as CEO of $JCP. We also know that he has been a serial retail innovator at both Apple and his previous employer Target $TGT.
Few companies have been more deft at creating buzz that Apple over the past decade. They have done it various ways but one interesting tactic has been the “oops”. It seems for the second time in as many years, an Apple employee got liquored up in a bar and “left” their iPhone 5 prototype behind. I mean, is there anything in a San Francisco bar that would make a 20-something LESS cool than the iPhone 5 prototype? They were probably so embarrassed to have it they tucked it in a corner so it would not be seen (please note sarcasm). Now, knowing people who have iPhones and knowing that they do not even go to the bathroom in their own homes w/o it, I find it REAL hard to believe this was another accident.
OK, not REAL hard time believing it happened, impossible. This is Apple creating buzz for the products. Good for them, it worked……again
JC Penny. It would seem they made a “mistake” with the following sweatshirt this week:
On it’s faced the sweatshirt to me is benign. It did, cause an uproar with folks (parents), got national attention (translation, tons of free advertising) and was pulled from shelves. Now, we all know that there is nothing teens want more than what their parents are pissed at. So, if you have a older retailer that wants to become more relevant with younger kids what do you do? Piss their parents off with edgy clothing and controversy.
Now, this certainly IMO is not nearly as bad as teen age (or pre-teen) girls with “Juicy” , “Pink” or whatever else on the ass of their sweatpants and shorts, but it caused a stir none the less. Hey, this still is $JCP, not Ambercrombie $ANF.
So now millions of teenagers see $JCP as a bit edgy and millions of parents think they “did the right thing and responded to parents” by pulling the sweatshirt…….win/win for the retailer…
Who knows if it was intentional or not. It was that seeing the two “mistake” events on the same day got me thinking………….