Former Target Corporation (TGT) merchandising chief and current Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) merchandising chief John Fleming will be leaving the world's largest retailer come August. The retailing veteran succumbed to four straight quarters of declining same-store sales, and made the personal decision to leave the company. In all fairness, would any merchandising chief had fared any better through the recent economic recession, even as Walmart fared well among all retailers?

Welcome to the sixth installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly -- a new weekly column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week I looked at Wal-Mart Stores' (NYSE:WMT) prices to really determine if the "always low prices" advertising and marketing tagline was accurate. While I only looked at groceries, I discovered that Wal-Mart's prices were indeed lower on six of seven items when compared with a local Albertson's grocery store.

This week I wanted to discuss what the retailer could do to get its advertising and marketing in order. Right now, it seems to be in complete disarray. From the dismissal of the Wal-Mart "Smiley" to the hiring of former Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) marketing exec John Fleming, the world's largest retailer has recently sent quite a few mixed messages.

Where is it headed? Read on.

Where has the "smiley face" gone?

Let's take a trip back to 2005. I used to see -- as did millions of U.S. television watchers -- the Wal-Mart "smiley" face bounce all over my television screen as an animated mascot (of sorts) for the retailer. The image that sticks in my mind was the smiley face romping throughout the store, happily slashing pricing signs and using his best Zorro impression to "rollback" prices. The smiley face became synonymous with "rolling back prices" for the world's largest retailer in its biggest market. Wal-Mart, back then, actually had an image and it worked well.