While the post-mortems are still being written about the tenure of Ron Johnson at J.C. Penney, make no mistake about it, this was definitely a qualifier for the Marketing Failure Hall of Fame.
In fact, comparisons can be drawn with two other great marketing failures,
In doing so, they alienated their existing customers by failing to get them to buy into the change.
Finally, Coke brought back the original formula and WCBS-FM returned to the oldies format and both met with immediate success.
Johnson is being replaced by the man J.C. Penney’s board fired in the first place, Myron Ullman; will it be as successful in resurrecting the past as Coke and WCBS-FM is an open question, but some observers feel it might be too late for that company.
Our mortgage marketing lesson is as we shift back to a purchase market, don’t blow up those relationships with your refinance customers because they decide they want to buy a new home someday soon.
And the opposite was true during the refi market; originators should not have blown up their B2B contacts because it was inevitable people would start buying homes again. Right now, like J.C. Penney, it might be too late to go back.
