Carts in the parking lot of a Walmart store. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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For the first time in almost 20 years, Walmart has a new logo. The international retailer describes it as a “a comprehensive brand refresh,” but the online world hasn’t been quite so kind to the new design.
Broadly, the internet’s reaction veers between rage and bemusement at the new Walmart logo—but this launch is an interesting case study about social media reacts to change and how cognitive biases dictate online behavior.
Let’s have a closer look at what’s happening.
Why Did Walmart Release A New Logo?
Founded in 1951, Walmart has grown from humble origins in Arkansas to the world’s largest retailer.
It’s regular practice for companies to update and refine their brands over time—and that’s precisely what Walmart has done.
According to the company, key aspects of this change include a wordmark “inspired by Sam Walton’s classic trucker hat and brought to life with a modern, custom font.”
Alongside this, the change in color between the old and new logos is in order to “keep the brand fresh.”
Walmart says that the refreshed brand will be rolled out across its various platforms and channels from January 2025. In regards to physical stores, the retailer states that this began in October 2024 and “remaining stores will continue to be redesigned over time.”
Walmart’s new logo will soon be everywhere—it just doesn’t appear the internet is that happy about it.
What Does The Internet Think About Walmart’s New Logo?
So far, response has been broadly negative. Lots of posts are commenting incredulously on the fact that someone received payment for the work:
Others are making memes from a similar perspective, but comparing the new Walmart logo to other objects:
Users on social media are also using popular meme formats to show their displeasure and confusion about Walmart’s brand redesign:
Across social media, there are many more memes and posts from people disparaging the redesign and getting irritated at people being paid for the work.
So what is it about Walmart’s new logo that has gotten the internet so wound up?
Why The Online World Is So Angry About The New Walmart Logo
Of course, one explanation is that the public simply don’t like the redesign, but there’s something deeper going on with the reaction to the new Walmart logo.
In broad strokes, this can be split into two rough parts: a fear of change, and a belief in expertness.
A research paper from 1988 by William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser entitled “Status Quo Bias in Decision Making” revealed that the vast majority of the populace are resistant to change, instead preferring for things to remain as they are.
“Individuals display a bias towards sticking with the status quo,” the paper declares.
This means people are innately resistant to change, so when something familiar, like the logo of a world-famous retailer alters, many feel an innately negative reaction.
This school of thought is supported by the loss aversion bias, research pioneered by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. This states that “the response to losses is stronger than the response to corresponding gains.”
In other words, the pain of something disappearing is often stronger than the pleasure of receiving getting something new. This can lead to negative reactions when confronted by change—such as people angrily making memes and posting on social media about the new Walmart logo.
There’s another aspect of this online reaction though. As discussed above, one of the main reactions to Walmart’s brand redesign were variations of disbelief about the company actually paying people to create the new logo.
This is a prime example of the online world being overly confident in its own correctness.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people overestimate their own knowledge, believing they’re more expert than they actually are. This leads to people with limited experience over-egging how much they actually know about a topic. Social media worsens this as the simply act of sharing online can make users overconfident in their own knowledge.
While, on the surface, Walmart’s new logo may appear a minor change that anyone could have done, there’s likely to be a dedicated and professional team behind it. With figures suggesting global branding agencies were worth $5.2 billion in 2023, this is clearly a competent and expert sector.
Walmart didn’t become worth over $735 billion by throwing money away, after all.
From continuity to staying on top of current trends, there will be very good reasons behind the seemingly minor change in Walmart’s new logo. The issue is the majority of people posting about it online aren’t experts in the field, no matter how much they may believe they are.
Ultimately, the new Walmart logo is a perfect example of several psychological factors playing out over the internet in unison. It operates as an interesting case study in how the online world reacts to change and the outcome of cognitive biases on a grand scale.
Yes, the internet’s mad about Walmart’s new logo, but this isn’t a surprise—the same will likely be true of every brand redesign.
