Walmart Private Label Brand Changing Visual Appearance

Well to start of this first blog post I must admit I have had a curse since I was born that I over analyze and notice ever change in visuals for brands and then I try to contemplate why the brand went in this direction. This obsession has led to me receiving a bachelor's degree in marketing and a portfolio of experience in rebranding small businesses to make their brands relevant in their respective markets. But branding is just one part of the marketing machine that includes the product/service, price, place (distribution), and promotion. Now as I work in economic development in the public sector I find myself helping build strong programs that can be used to help grow the economy as a whole for a community and on projects that involve helping small businesses realize their potential with the use of new media tools.

Every time I visit Walmart with my brand goggles on I notice minor updates to brand visuals rather that is actual brand logos or point of purchase displays. Well, during a recent trip I realized that Walmart was changing their private label brand, Great Value from their standard white background that was consistent through all types of products from shoes to chips to frozen goods.

Walmart was now leveraging similar colors to the market leader's brand for that particular product. For instance, see image below to their brand of barbecue flavored chips. Now at first the physical look of the bag seems similar to their Great Value standard, white background. However lets put this new bag design up against the market leader's design, Lay's. See images below. Now Great Value has added the industry standard black for the Barbecue flavor brand to their bag design. In addition take a look at the bottom right of the Great Value bag it has a section with thin yellow lines that is very similar to the left hand side of the Lay's bag. Great Value also used the brush dripping with barbecue sauce in the center of the bag very similar to the Lay's design. The only differentiating visuals with the Great Value bag design is the use of the tomato, lettuce, and onion in the middle of the bag. Great Value even used the same number of barbecue chips, three, that Lay's used within their main design. Also notice the use of the color yellow as an accent color on the Great Value word mark logo for the barbecue flavor, doesn't that seem similar to the Lay's yellow in their brand logo?

Walmart however created the new brand standard for Great Value by placing the GV logo in the top left of the bag design which can be seen on other products. Including their brand of cheese balls and popcorn.

What's my take on this change? I think that this change helps fight the issue of consumers who looked at the Great Value brand in their old brand visual standard. Now instead of your eyes looking at the GV brand in their old standard white product design you will now see similar colors for the product similar to the product's market leader. This will help stimulate your brain to recollect your feelings about the market leader's brand. Sound crazy? Well the mere exposure to a set of colors with a branded product over time will make us grab that product and trust that product on the shelve more than a different looking product with different colors than what we are used to. Yes the bright white look for GV made us recognize the brand but we still had to fight off issues that we were buying a lesser quality product based on their stale white private label design. At the end of the day the change for GV will help consumers who have reservations about purchasing their product to make impulse buys and take a chance on GV products based on their brand's new visual product design. Colors are important.

More brand updates soon to come. What's your take on this brand issue? Let Brand Tuck know.

Old White Background Visual Brand Look for Great Value

 Brand Tuck is a serial guerrilla marketer who leverages unconventional and new media tools to help build brands both in the consumer and business markets.