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Asda Walmart

Asda’s Walmart rebrand fails to inspire sales as boss says: “We’ve hit our nadir”

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By Jennifer Faull | Deputy Editor

August 18, 2015 | 2 min read

Asda chief executive Andy Clarke says the retailer has hit rock bottom, following another round of falling sales despite a rebrand to “connect” with parent company Walmart.

The grocer announced plans to adopt Walmart’s sunshine logo and ‘Save Money. Live Better’ slogan in February, saying it wanted to “boost the connection” with its parent company.

With ‘Live Better’, Walmart wanted to show what consumers get for low prices and Asda was hoping to achieve the same.

The first campaign under this strategy rolled out in earnest in early July, with the retailer firmly believing that “it would really resonate with customers”.

However, like-for-like sales have continued to slide in the second quarter, down 4.7 per cent, while profits were flat.

“We've hit our nadir,” said Clarke, but added he is now seeing the emergence of “an upward trend”

Asda will now look to accelerate proposition and is relying on the results of an intensive piece of research it recently conducted into what drives current buying decisions. This will be the foundation for the next stage of the strategy, he said.

“We won’t get side-tracked by the short-term fixes that are saturating the supermarket industry.”

Meanwhile Walmart reported like-for-like sales growth of 1.5 per cent as revenues rose 0.1 per cent to $120.2bn (£76.4bn), attributing the boost to an improved experience.

Asda Walmart

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