Walmart’s “Refresh”: Smart Strategy or Another Bland Rebrand?

Walmart sparked a heated online debate this month with the launch of its updated look, refreshing its logo and identity to align with the digital age and the evolving needs of their customers, while keeping elements that consumers know and love. Some took to social media to humorously point out that the rebrand looked strikingly similar to the original—so what was the point?
Even Aldi, staying true to its cheeky personality, joined the conversation, posting a side-by-side of the exact same logo, adding fuel to the fire.

Beyond the online jokes and gimmicks, Walmart’s rebrand raises an interesting question about how brands should approach a refresh strategy. Not long ago, the internet was up in arms over Jaguar’s rebrand, while Scottish Widows unveiled a new icon to better align with digital platforms, also sparking curiosity online. The simplification and redesign of brand assets and logos is nothing new; we’ve seen it time and time again—just look at Coca-Cola, whose brand has evolved multiple times to stay relevant to modern consumers. And just imagine what LinkedIn would have had to say back in 1985—there might have been public riots!

In their research titled The Extraordinary Cost of Dull, Adam Morgan of eatbigfish, System1’s Jon Evans, and Peter Field explored the evolution of logos in the digital age—something they coined “optimization.” Simply put, the more channels and media types a brand advertises across, the simpler its assets need to be in order to work seamlessly across various touchpoints. That’s why today’s logos are moving away from distinctive, colorful fonts and designs in favor of monotone, sans-serif typefaces. Modern logos and brand identities must work at any size, on any screen, and across all ad formats. The downside? They’re often a lot duller. This shift isn’t limited to logos—every visual brand asset is being redesigned to be simpler, more flexible, and, unfortunately, less interesting.

Given this, Walmart’s refresh might actually be a success, right? A logo so similar to the original that it stays true to the brand’s personality and distinctiveness while meeting the demands of modern optimization.
Settling the Debate
To determine whether Walmart’s refresh was a smart move or just a bland rebrand, we put both the original and updated logos to the test using System1’s Test Your Innovation platform to understand how real consumers felt. We used a variety of tools and metrics to analyze consumer sentiment:
- Emotional Pull: Using our FaceTrace® tool, we measured the emotional resonance of each brand asset, capturing how effectively it connects with consumers on a personal and emotional level.
- Share Trading: We asked consumers whether they’d metaphorically “buy” or “sell” each asset, offering clear insights into their enthusiasm for each and how well it aligns with their preferences.
- Decision Speed: By tracking how quickly consumers engaged with each asset, we uncovered the immediacy of their reactions. Faster responses indicated genuine enthusiasm, while slower ones pointed to hesitation or uncertainty.
- Reasons for Emotion: We gathered key consumer verbatims, revealing why they liked or disliked each asset.
Let’s find out what US consumers had to say!
Out with the Old and In with the New!
The consumer verdict was undeniably clear—the new logo redesign, brand identity, and store look strongly appeal to consumers, outperforming the old look and feel. While the redesign is subtle, it has a significant impact on consumers’ emotional connection and perception of the Walmart brand. Take that, keyboard warriors! You might want to take some notes.

Overall Brand Identity
Star Rating: 4.6 Stars

Walmart’s overarching strategy puts the customer at the heart—new uniforms feature “Happy to Help” messaging, and beautiful murals welcome shoppers into their stores. While the sharpened, brighter color palette may be better suited to digital platforms, the human experience ultimately drove the decisions. They’ve prioritized vibrancy, people, and variety—the antithesis of “dullness”—and it’s clearly paid off.
The Test Your Innovation results revealed that 47% of consumers felt positive about the change, while 14% felt surprised, aligning closely with a strong 75:25 happiness-to-surprise ratio. In System1: Unlocking Profitable Growth, John Kearon’s research explores how to craft the perfect innovation and successfully launch something new. While an 80:20 ratio is considered the gold standard for maximizing success, 75:25 is still a strong indicator of in-market potential, signaling that Walmart’s refresh struck the right balance between familiarity and novelty.
Happiness is typically driven by familiarity—products, concepts, or designs consumers already know—whereas surprise is linked to the new and unexpected. So while many criticized Walmart for staying too true to its original identity, this familiar look and feel is exactly what real customers appreciate most. If that’s not a reason to tune out social media noise during launches and focus on real consumer feedback, I’m not sure what is!

Consumer feedback praised the bright colors and “hip” new direction, describing the updated look as both “clean” and accessible. “People” emerged as a key strength of the rebrand, with customers highlighting the many ways they can engage with the brand and the wide variety of offerings. On brand attributes, the refresh unsurprisingly excelled in “trust” and “ease”—a testament to Walmart’s commitment to maintaining its distinctive personality, while adapting to modern consumers and technology.
Individual Assets
- New Isotype – Star Rating: 4.2 Stars (+1.4 versus old isotype)
- New Logo – Star Rating: 3.4 Stars (+0.6 versus old logo)
The positive feedback on Walmart’s refreshed brand identity extended to individual assets, with the sun isotype receiving praise for its “brighter, happier” image. The bold colors were highlighted as a key advantage, making the design more attention-grabbing—the exact kind of response any brand hopes for in a refresh.

Meanwhile, the biggest advantage of the simpler, bolder design was summed up perfectly by consumers: “It’s a change, but still familiar.” I know what you’re thinking—John Kearon must be running these surveys! But there it is again, straight from the consumer’s mouth, not ours—familiarity is the key to a successful rebrand. Drastic changes can feel like too much, too soon, disrupting consumers’ connection to a brand they already know and trust—and potentially costing you business.

Create with Confidence
Are you looking to refresh your brand or enhance your digital platform experience? With a database of over 54,000 ideas for benchmarking, Test Your Innovation empowers brands to Create with Confidence—helping them launch new products, logos, brand characters, and more. Forget the online chatter—we speak to real consumers, the ones who truly matter, to unlock the full potential of your assets and optimize for success. We’d love to help you refresh your brand and impress your customers with a bold, modern look.