TL;DR: The meteoric rise and subsequent profit collapse of the popular brand On Running serves as a powerful case study for a critical modern business truth: marketing cannot build lasting authority in a vacuum. In the age of AI, where every customer complaint and operational flaw is a public signal, a brand's reputation is now a direct reflection of its operational reality. True, defensible trust can only be achieved when your marketing promise is in perfect alignment with your operational execution and customer support experience.
I am James, CEO of Mercury Technology Solutions.
I often see companies invest millions in crafting a brilliant, compelling brand story, only to see its impact evaporate. They achieve incredible visibility and market penetration, yet their profitability stagnates, and their customer loyalty proves fragile. Why does this happen?
The answer almost always lies in a deep, structural disconnect between the story the marketing team tells and the reality the operations and customer support teams deliver. A recent, fascinating case study on the Swiss brand On Running provides a perfect illustration of this modern business challenge.
The On Running Paradox: A Masterclass in Marketing, A Warning on Operations
Since entering the Chinese market in 2018, On has executed a brilliant marketing strategy. Through savvy luxury collaborations and celebrity endorsements, it successfully positioned itself as a "sports luxury" brand—a status symbol for the affluent, new middle class. The results were spectacular: net sales in the Asia-Pacific region grew by an incredible 114.8% in the first half of the year, making it On's fastest-growing market globally (according to their Q2 2025 financial report).
This is a clear marketing win. However, a look beneath the surface reveals a dangerous operational reality. In the same period, the company's net profit plummeted by over 232%, turning a healthy profit into a significant loss.
What could cause such a disconnect? The answer can be found on social media and in product reviews, which are filled with complaints from customers about "cracked soles" and "torn heels" after less than six months of use. Even an On salesperson was quoted in a K-Tipp report admitting, "The shoes are very light, but they are also very fragile."
This is the great disconnect in action. The marketing team is selling a high-performance, premium, durable product. The operations and customer support teams are dealing with the fallout from a product that often fails to deliver on that promise.
Why This is a Critical Problem in the AI Era
In the past, a company might have been able to outrun its quality issues with a big enough marketing budget. That era is over.
In the modern digital ecosystem, every customer complaint, every negative review, and every forum discussion is a public "operational signal." These signals are the raw data that AI models like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews are trained on. When these AI systems synthesize information to answer a user's query like, "Are On Running shoes durable?", they will inevitably reflect this public consensus.
This means your brand's authority and trust are no longer just shaped by your CMO; they are a direct reflection of your COO's performance.
(Image Placeholder: A visual diagram illustrating the concept of "Disconnect vs. Alignment." The "Disconnect" side shows a broken bridge between a "Marketing Promise" cloud and an "Operational Reality" cloud, leading to negative AI signals and a declining brand trust score. The "Alignment" side shows a solid bridge, labeled "Integrated Platform," connecting the two clouds, leading to positive AI signals and rising brand authority.)
The Mercury Solution: A Unified Platform for a Unified Strategy
This new reality is precisely why we architected the Mercury Technology Solutions ecosystem as a true one-stop-shop. We believe that a siloed approach to marketing and operations is no longer a viable strategy. True brand authority requires a single, integrated view of the business.
Here is how our platform solves the "great disconnect":
- The CMO's View (Public Perception): Our Mercury SocialHub CRM acts as the command center for your marketing and customer support teams. It empowers you to track customer sentiment, monitor reviews across all platforms, and manage support tickets, providing a real-time, unfiltered view of what your customers are saying about your brand and product reality.
- The COO's View (Operational Reality): Our Mercury Business Operation Suite (ERP) empowers the COO to instantly pinpoint operational weaknesses, tracking everything from product return rates and warranty claims in the Sales Management module to supply chain and material quality in the Purchase Management module.
- The CEO's Unified View (The Integrated Solution): The real power lies in our ability to connect these two worlds. Our integrated platform allows us to correlate the data streams. When the SocialHub CRM flags a spike in customer complaints about "cracked soles" in a specific region, we can use the ERP to trace that back to a particular production batch or a change in material suppliers. The unified platform then allows the marketing team to launch a targeted communication campaign to the affected customers, offering a transparent explanation and a proactive solution, turning a potential brand crisis into a trust-building opportunity.
Conclusion: Authority is the Product of Alignment
No company can survive on marketing alone. In the age of AI, where every aspect of your business is transparent and discoverable, your brand's authority is the direct product of the alignment between your marketing promise and your operational execution.
The most powerful marketing is not a clever campaign; it is a best-in-class operation that consistently delivers on its promises. Our mission at Mercury is to provide the integrated technology and strategic insight required to achieve that alignment, ensuring that the brand you build is not just visible, but is fundamentally trustworthy.
