Wal-mart… we all have certain feelings associated with the retailer, but through their new campaigns they are trying to change these previous feelings. The task is to create a new image still resonating with those tightening their budgets, but adding the aspect of high value and sophistication. Hence, “Save money. Live better.” They began with their logo change months back that introduced the “sunburst” and took them from Wal-mart to Walmart. But their re-branding efforts have continued (as they must in order to break the thought patterns of millions Americans toward the store).
Remember those smiley commercials with the smile bouncing on prices and watching them “rollback”? Instead, we are seeing clean, simple, ads, with much more sophistication.
Magazine ads are also clean and chic carrying messages such as “beauty for less” and showing models next to the Walmart products. Whether you like Walmart or not, one can hardly ignore the cleverness of such a campaign in tight economic times like this. They are basically saying, “Hey you gotta spend smarter and be more careful, and that’s okay. You can still live your life with all the luxuries you did before. Going to Walmart makes everything better.”
