J.C. Penney marketing head Mary Beth West departs for Hershey

Dive Brief:

J.C. Penney executive VP-chief customer and marketing officer Mary Beth West is leaving the discount department store to join the Hershey Company as its senior vice president and chief growth officer, according to a Monday press release from Hershey.
West joined Penney two years ago from Mondelez International Inc., where she held the top marketing role, so her departure to Hershey is a return to the food business. She has also previously held leadership positions at General Foods and Kraft. West served on Penney’s board from 2005 to 2015 when she stepped down to take the marketing role.
She will remain at Penney until March 31, and marketing responsibilities will be taken up by Kirk Waidelich, senior VP-sales promotion and marketing, and Sheeba Philip, VP-marketing strategy and communications until her replacement is found, according to Ad Age.

Dive Insight:

West joined Penney at a delicate time, in the aftermath of former CEO Ron Johnson’s tenure, which saw upheaval in marketing as Johnson sought to upend the brand — ditching its constant discount tags for an always low prices approach. That scared away its core customers and didn’t do much to attract new ones, although some observers have said it wasn't given enough of a chance.

With permanent CEO Marvin Ellison at the helm (former Penney CEO Mike Ullman returned for a couple of years to mop things up), Penney is in the midst of more change. The retailer is taking advantage of Sears’ troubles by once again selling appliances, and it's also boosting its furniture and home goods offerings.

But apparel sales continue to falter, and the company last month announced that it will close between 130 to 140 underperforming stores, shut down two distribution facilities and offer buyouts to 6,000 workers over the next few months, even after delivering a net profit for the first time since 2010.

Ellison said the closures represent an effort to trim costs, leverage lucrative real estate value from a Buena Park, CA supply chain facility and better position the discount department store “to effectively compete against the growing threat of online retailers." In a conference call with analysts last month, he also said the company’s marketing efforts need a focus that comes with data.

“There's a lot to be said about the art and science of retail, I've talked about that. But we had way too much art and not enough science; and in some cases, we took couponing to a level that was unhealthy, and we didn't advertise it in a way that we could drive traffic,” he said, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. “In other decisions we made, we took additional percents off clearance and when you do that, that's OK, but you need to have a marketing strategy to communicate that so you can drive traffic. And so, there was some tactical decisions we made in the attempt to drive topline. And I applaud the team's desire and eagerness to drive topline, that's what we're here to do, but some of the decisions were not as well thought out and they were not data-driven.”