J.C. Penney Holiday Starts Without the Upheaval

This is the first Christmas in four years that J.C. Penney isn't confusing customers by discontinuing merchandise, killing coupons, introducing brands or having big chunks of its stores under construction. And its merchants and marketers have had a full year to plan Christmas 2014 without a revolving door of its leadership and radical changes in pricing strategy or product mix. "Last year, we didn't have a lot of lead time, but we did have a point of view with our ‘jingle more bells’ campaign," said Deb Berman, senior vice president of marketing.