Puma claims brand perceptions have improved following “significant” progress with its brand elevation strategy, including the launch of its first global campaign in a decade.
The sportswear giant claims the 2024 campaign, ‘See the Game Like We Do’, helped strengthen its connection with consumers and boost brand visibility, increasing brand awareness and consideration.
Reporting its 2024 full year results today (12 March), the company has also seen a rise in unaided brand awareness, particularly in the US, since the campaign’s April launch and following major events such as the Olympic Games and Euro 2024.
CEO Arne Freundt has emphasised that maximising short-term sales is not Puma’s priority.
“2024 was the first year where we prioritised our brand health and distribution quality over short-term sales maximisation,” he told investors in January on a call about the Q4 and full year results.
“In 2025, we will continue to do so by continuing our brand elevation journey, by continuing to invest into a brand campaign, while we continue to focus on improving our sales.”
For the first time, Puma implemented its new product, go-to-market and marketing strategies for its Speedcat range of trainers, which the brand claims shows “promising” sales numbers.
“Strengthening our brand and our performance credibility is crucial for Puma’s sustainable success as a sports brand,” said Freundt.
Puma’s brand elevation strategy consists of three elements: establishing a distinctive brand DNA, strengthening its performance credibility and strengthening its relevance in its ‘Sportstyle Prime’ business.
“This strategy is our basis to achieve long-term, sustainable growth and to grow faster than the market,” a statement read.
Puma’s YouGov BrandIndex score – a measure of overall brand health – has improved since it embarked on its brand elevation journey. In April 2023, the brand’s score was 12.4, rising to 15 in April 2024 and 18 in the most recent reading.
Improved brand perceptions appear to be translating into revenue. Full-year sales for 2024 increased by 4.4% to €8.8bn (£7.4bn) supported by growth in all regions, product divisions and distribution channels, however the firm’s EBIT remained flat at €622m (£523m).
Meanwhile, Puma’s shares have lost around 50% of their value since the start of the year, falling more than 20% over a single day in January when it missed its profit target for 2024.
Puma noted that in a “challenging and volatile” environment, which is expected to weigh on consumer sentiment and demand in key markets, the brand will focus on what it can control, including its brand elevation strategy.
“I am not satisfied with our stagnant profitability,” Freundt said. “We must address our current cost trend and we have already been taking decisive actions to improve the situation with our nextlevel programme.”
Reinvesting into marketing
In February 2025, Puma initiated the efficiency programme ‘nextlevel’ to complement its brand elevation strategy and translate growth into incremental profitability, the aim being to achieve an EBIT margin of 8.5% by 2027.
The nextlevel programme focuses on improving gross profit margin by reducing complexity, optimising costs by stabilising headcount and allocating resources to strategic growth areas.
A “core element” of the programme is to protect the marketing investment.
“We will continue to invest [around] 10% of our sales in marketing. But obviously, we will also continue to improve our marketing spend with improved ROI,” Freundt explained.
The programme aims to “further strengthen” Puma’s competitiveness, as some of the “freed-up” resources will be reinvested into brand and product.
“That means that we always try to shift more money from our departmental costs and from production costs into the working spend, to make sure that every marketing dollar which we invest has an impact on the consumer,” he said.
When asked why the business is sticking to 10% and not increasing marketing spend further, Freundt said it was because the business believes 10% is “the adequate amount of money to put behind the brand”.
Puma has undergone a marketing transformation since 2024. As part of said transformation, the firm relocated its marketing function from Boston, US to its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany and restructured its marketing function.
Puma splits its efforts 60/40 between brand investment and conversion investment, or short-term channels, Puma’s top marketer Richard Teyssier told Marketing Week last year.
Senior director of global brand strategy, Julie Legrand explained the brand has been on a journey to “get ready for the next chapter”. This process has recently appointing Adam&eveDDB to take on its global creative account.
“In the course of doing that big soul searching exercise, we always had in mind…we were going to look for a strategic partner in an agency that could help us translate the DNA of the brand for the years to come creatively into a consumer facing communication,” she told Marketing Week.
Looking ahead, Puma plans to further increase the media spend for its upcoming brand campaign, as well as invest in its ecommerce business, which it describes as an “integral part” of the consumer journey.
