Nike Is Spending More on Brand Even as Its Sales Keep Sliding
Nike is increasing its brand-marketing investment — reportedly up around 15% — even as revenues continue to slide, a deliberate bet that the way out of a slump is to build the brand, not cut the budget.
When sales fall, the reflex in most boardrooms is to cut marketing. Nike is doing the opposite. The sportswear giant is increasing its brand-marketing investment even as revenues keep sliding, with its leadership framing brand-building as 'critical to winning' its way back to growth.
What Nike is doing
Reported figures point to marketing investment rising by roughly 15% while top-line revenue continues to fall. It is a striking divergence, and a deliberate one: rather than treat marketing as a cost to trim in hard times, Nike is treating it as the engine of recovery, pouring money into brand and sport while running a significant cost-cutting programme elsewhere in the business.
The counter-intuitive logic
This runs against instinct but with the evidence. Decades of marketing-effectiveness research — from the likes of the IPA and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute — suggest brands that maintain or increase share of voice during a downturn tend to gain market share, while those that go dark hand ground to competitors. Cutting marketing in a slump often feels responsible and proves expensive.
Nike's particular problem is that it leaned too hard on performance and direct-to-consumer tactics and let its cultural, brand-led edge dull. The current push is a correction: back to big brand ideas and deep ties to sport, the things that made Nike famous in the first place. It is a reminder that even the strongest brand has to keep feeding the thing that makes it strong.
The lesson for smaller businesses
You do not need Nike's budget to take the point. When times get tight, the brands that keep showing up — consistently, confidently — are the ones customers remember when they are ready to buy again. Going quiet saves money today and costs demand tomorrow, because attention you give up is attention a competitor takes.
The discipline is to protect brand spend precisely when it feels hardest to justify. That does not mean spending recklessly; it means not mistaking marketing for a luxury. Nike is betting billions that being remembered is cheaper than being forgotten — and for most businesses, that bet is the right one.
Quick FAQ
Is Nike really increasing marketing as sales fall?
Yes. Reports indicate Nike raised brand-marketing investment by around 15% even as revenues continued to decline, framing brand-building as central to its recovery.
Why increase marketing during a downturn?
Effectiveness research suggests brands that maintain share of voice in a downturn tend to gain market share, while those that cut spend lose ground to competitors.
What's the takeaway for small businesses?
Protect brand spend when it feels hardest to justify — going quiet saves money now but surrenders attention and future demand to rivals.
Cutting marketing when sales dip feels responsible, but it's usually the most expensive saving you'll ever make. The businesses that keep showing up in a downturn are the ones customers remember when they're ready to spend again. Being forgotten is far costlier than being seen. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Going dark in a downturn saves money today and surrenders demand tomorrow — the brands that keep showing up are the ones remembered when buyers return.
If budgets tightened next month, would brand marketing be the first thing you cut — and what would that cost you later?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week reporting on Nike's marketing investment and financial results.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
