Since December 2008 Walmart has been testing a new store concept in Arizona (to compete with Tesco's "Fresh & Easy"). This involves food supermarkets from 1,500 to 2,000 m2 (that is, half of their smallest size "Neighborhood Markets") called Marketside. "Who We Are: not just your typical grocery store": the signature and corporate colours (apple green and wine-coloured), immediately situate us in a world far more upscale than the traditional Walmart store. Dedicated exclusively to food products, focusing on fresh produce and meals prepared on site ("No time to cook? Count on Marketside"), these stores offer menus Téléchargement Marketside_Menu and products at the lowest possible price ("Marketside, where fresh costs less").
Designed to attract more demanding – and more affluent – consumers, the Marketside logo showed stacks of fruit and vegetables … and did not make any reference to Walmart.
One can understand this choice: do not influence the opinion of the targeted consumers with the low-price image of Walmart. But voila, it seems that this concept does not work so well because Walmart has decided (very discreetly) to change the name and logo of this brand: the fruits and vegetables are to vanish and a signature "by Walmart" will appear.
Walmart therefore reacted very quickly, realizing that the image projected by this site was too high-end and that consumers did not notice that the prices were indeed quite low. Outcome: reinstate the Walmart name to capitalize on its image and price.
