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"In a mushy ad posted on YouTube last night, JCPenney is pleading for its former customers to come back.\nIt acknowledges that the department store chain has made mistakes but says JCPenney has learned to listen to its customer, \u201Cto hear what you need to make your life more beautiful.\u201D\nIt\u2019s unclear whether that will bring back the customers JCPenney lost under former CEO Ron Johnson\u2019s tenure at the company. Johnson, who had been head of Apple stores, got rid of JCPenney\u2019s popular discounts to simplify the pricing at the stores. That caused customers to flee, and sales plunged by $4.3 billion in his first year.\nLast month, JCPenney replaced Johnson with his predecessor, Mike Ullman. That caused JCPenney\u2019s stock to fall even further. But it has been recovering in recent weeks as the company shores up its finances. JCPenney had been burning through cash to revamp its stores, a plan established by Johnson.\nTo reassure the market and JCPenney vendors, the store had been seeking additional cash. It recently got a $1.75 billion loan commitment from Goldman Sachs, which helped send its shares up. That\u2019s all good news for JCPenney\u2019s finances, but its performance on the storefront is unclear. Most of JCPenney\u2019s customers fled to to Kohl\u2019s or Macy\u2019s. A recent brand study shows JCPenney has now fallen behind Kohl\u2019s in terms of positive impression on customers.\nThe YouTube ad is aimed at those customers, but it remains to be seen how many will see it. JCPenney has the oldest customer demographic among its rivals, meaning many aren\u2019t watching YouTube. But JCPenney also notes in its ad that it\u2019s listening to customers on Facebook, too.\nImage via Scott Olson/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/05/01/jcpenney-come-back-ad/>