Out with the old...

...and in with the new.

Seen the new WalMart logo? Like most good updated corporate identities, it doesn’t stray too far from the old logo. They went with a little less corporate blue, and dropped the all-caps lookfor the more friendly upper and lower case treatment. More interesting is their swapping a star for an asterisk. You can argue that stars are ‘so last year’ – and you’d probably be right. (The term “star” has been devalued – when was the last time you heard some entertainment reporter refer to some newly-discovered Pop Tart as a “superstar”?) The asterisk is certainly star-like…it looks something like a star, and the effect is something like a friendlier star. Of course, it occurs to me that the asterisk is something of a risk for them. I mean, in the wide, wide world of sports, an asterisk next to your name means that there’s some special circumstance associated with your name in the record books. As in he holds the home run record* (but he did it on steroids). Not a good thing.Then there’s the original meaning of the asterisk – footnoting. Does this tell us “Walmart…Save money. Live better.* with a footnote disclaimer like “your results may vary” or “void in Vermont, New Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula.”

I also wonder if Walmart ditched the star for the stylized asterisk for copyright reasons. A star is virtually impossible to reserve as intellectual property. On the other hand, something stylized is a slam-dunk. Which is somewhat worrisome, as I’m afraid of what might happen if Walmart decides to protect their new identity by suing everyone who uses an asterisk. It would be kind of like copyrighting “blue.” Can you imagine the lawsuits? “I’m sorry, we own the asterisk, blue and yellow. Your logo is infringing on ours. Pay up. My logo is a blue ball with a stylized “g” in the middle. Would they sue me over the blue? Could I sue them for using the letter “g” in their ads?

They’ve also changed their slogan, from “Always lower prices. Always” to “Save money. Live better.” I suppose they realize that they’ve nailed the ‘lower prices’ thing in the minds of the public, so they’ve decided to start pointing out the advantage of those lower prices to the probably 1% of the population who doesn’t already get it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of these hypocrites that likes to slam Walmart for “enslaving the poor” and selling cheap goods made in China, all the while shopping there. Nope I shop at Walmart regularly. And I see nothing wrong with them selling stuff at a lower prices to increase sales. That’s capitalism at its best – and the American Way. I admire Walmart. (I am a little concerned about the Chinese merch, but that’s a topic for another post.) Here’s the thing. I think the fact that Walmart is freshing their corporate identity to be a smart idea. They seem to be a pretty sharp bunch, which means I doubt you’ll ever see any nonsense about suing others who use some kind of asterisk bug (unlike Monster Cables, who have sued everybody BUT Halloween itself, for use of the name “monster.”) As to the meaning of the asterisk, I guess we’ll have to leave that one for the record books.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 9:56 pm and is filed under marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.