Brand trust is built by people and can never be replaced by AI. It’s about emotions, expectations and relationships – independent if you are in B2C or B2B. When customers start to lose trust in your brand, you are on a downhill slope that will cost you dearly.
The following story is a translation of an opinion piece in Dagens Industri by David Borg about how Nike transformed its marketing through AI agents – and what it has cost the company in lost market value, now facing an extremely challenging future.
“Two years ago, I wrote about Nike here. The company had abandoned brand communication and retailers, moved everything to its own online store and gone all in on data-driven sales marketing. Every individual decision could be justified in a spreadsheet. On Monday (Note: September 21, 2026), Nike was removed from the S&P 100 after 18 years in the index, down around 80% from its peak, with approximately $230 billion in market value wiped out.”
“But the most important lesson from Nike is not its decline. It is the cost of making a comeback. New CEO Elliott Hill is now turning the company around by doing the exact opposite of what caused its downfall: returning to sports, storytelling, and retailers. Wholesale sales grew by eight percent in the latest reporting period, while direct sales declined by the same amount. And the company is spending around $5 billion to make its brand desirable again. In other words, Nike is buying back precisely what it once eliminated in the name of efficiency – at a vastly higher price.”
How could this happen? For me it’s about not understanding the customer value drivers. Nike built is success around being a challenger, not afraid sticking out by using personalities like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams and Colin Kaepernick to show what the company stood for. I don’t think we can blame AI alone for losing track of the brand, but it plays a crucial part. The savings achieved by using AI-generated content was outweighed some million times by the loss of creditability and brand value.
The same rule and risk are applicable also in B2B. Of course, we should always look for efficiency gains, but not by risking our brand. And the rule is simple: If we want to be a premium brand we must be premium in everything we do – from product quality to brand consistency and communication quality.
I sometimes receive communication examples that makes me want to cry. Customer and shareholder information full of inconsistencies, spelling mistakes, formatting mistakes (like accepting AI’s title cased headlines and em dashes) and badly written in general. Then I sometimes ask when sending a red-lined proof back “Are your products of equally bad quality?”. The answer is often an indignant reply “Of course not!”
My final comment normally are: “But what do you think your customers will think when this is full of mistakes”.
After a few sidesteps, customers will start to notice. Start to think. And ask themselves if their opinion about you and your products is correct…
If you want to discuss how to develop and maintain your premium brand, you are always welcome to contact ulf@sfinxagency.se
