By Warren Moss
In a world increasingly defined by complexity, volatility, and interdependence, B2B brands are no longer the quiet giants operating behind the scenes. They are now protagonists in shaping economies, industries, and lives, particularly in Africa, where the stakes are profound and the potential vast.
Yet despite their growing prominence, the discipline of B2B brand building remains misunderstood, underfunded, and often poorly executed. Too many B2B companies still rely on rational messaging, short-term lead generation, and the assumption that buyers behave like spreadsheets. But people don’t think like spreadsheets. And B2B buyers – yes, even in Africa – are still people.
So, how do B2B brands really grow? What must they do differently? And what unique role can African B2B brands play on the global stage?
Let’s begin with the fundamentals.
One of the most persistent myths in B2B marketing is that brand building is a ‘B2C thing’. That’s both false and harmful. As Mark Ritson frequently reminds us, the fundamentals of marketing don’t change just because the buyer wears a lanyard instead of jeans. B2B buyers have the same human biases, emotions, and mental shortcuts as anyone else. In fact, the bigger the purchase risk, the more they rely on brand as a heuristic.
That’s why the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s core insight that brands grow primarily through mental and physical availability is just as relevant in B2B. Mental availability means being easily thought of in buying situations. It requires investing in long-term brand building, not just lead-gen campaigns. Physical availability in B2B may look different from FMCG (think channel presence, product fit, after-sales support), but the principle holds.
Too often, African B2B brands focus narrowly on personal relationships and procurement pipelines. These matter – relationships still drive trust – but without mental availability, you’re invisible when the real decisions happen. And in a continent where B2B solutions are needed at scale, from logistics to infrastructure, AgriTech to fintech, invisibility is a growth death sentence.
Let’s talk Category Entry Points (CEPs), one of Ehrenberg-Bass’s most powerful concepts, and one of the most underused in African B2B marketing.
CEPs are the cues or situations that buyers associate with a category, moments when they’re most likely to think about making a purchase. In B2B, these could be ‘when expanding into a new region’, ‘when replacing legacy systems’, or ‘when ensuring regulatory compliance.’
Here’s the kicker: B2B brands grow not by narrowing focus, but by broadening the number of CEPs they are associated with. The more CEPs a brand owns in a buyer’s mind, the greater the chance of being thought of when it counts.
Too many African B2B brands focus all their messaging on one or two functional triggers – ‘secure’, ‘compliant’, ‘cost-effective’ – without exploring the rich emotional and contextual terrain their buyers operate in. What about ‘when I need to impress my board’, ‘when I can’t afford to fail’, or ‘when I want to signal growth’? These are real, high-stakes moments that African buyers experience. And brands that show up there – both mentally and emotionally – build durable salience.
No discussion of brand growth is complete without invoking Binet and Field’s landmark research on the balance between long-term brand building and short-term activation. Their data shows that the optimal split is roughly 60% brand and 40% activation, and while those numbers may flex in B2B contexts, the principle does not.
Yet in Africa, B2B marketing budgets skew heavily toward short-term lead generation, with brand-building efforts often dismissed as ‘too fluffy’ or ‘not for our audience.’ This is a costly mistake. Long-term brand building does more than increase awareness – it builds trust, justifies premium pricing, reduces churn, and softens procurement cycles. In volatile African markets where decision-making can be conservative and trust is paramount, these effects are not just beneficial – they are vital.
Short-term tactics can get you in the room. But long-term brand building gets you remembered when the tender lands or the board signs off. It creates mental real estate that competitors can’t outbid or out-discount.
Here’s the opportunity: Africa is not a latecomer to B2B branding – it’s a frontier. And frontiers favour those willing to lead with courage, creativity, and strategic discipline.
African B2B companies are solving problems that matter deeply to humanity. From renewable energy to financial inclusion, logistics to digital infrastructure, these are not niche plays. They are global challenges, and African brands have a unique, authentic perspective on solving them.
The time is ripe for these companies to stop playing defence and start playing offence with their brands. Not by mimicking Western B2B aesthetics, but by building distinctive brand assets rooted in African identity, aspiration, and ingenuity. Not by chasing clicks, but by investing in fame, trust, and salience.
We are seeing early signs of this shift. Pan-African B2B fintechs are investing in thought leadership and emotional storytelling. Industrial giants are revamping their brand architecture to better reflect the scale of their impact. And procurement-led organisations are beginning to understand that brand is not just a cost – it’s a growth multiplier.
But more needs to be done.
To grow the B2B sector in Africa – and with it, the economies and communities it enables – we need marketers who think like statesmen and women. Those who understand that brand is not an afterthought but an asset. Those who balance the urgent with the important. Those who build with discipline, invest with intent, and speak with humanity.
The global B2B landscape is waking up to the power of brand. African B2B leaders must not only join that movement – they must shape it.
Because in the end, brands don’t just reflect the world we live in; they help build the one we want.
