B2B brand marketing in Africa? An exploratory investigation of B2B buyers' perception of supplier brands

Despite growing interest in business-to-business branding, there is limited understanding of how B2B brands impact organizational buying decisions in fast-emerging African markets. To address this omission, this study attempts to investigate the role and significance of B2B supplier brands in emerging African economies. Using a qualitative inquiry, we conducted interviews with business-to-business buyers across various sectors of the Nigerian economy. Leveraging insights from these buyers, we offer a comparative analysis of the role of B2B buying practices in African and Western markets and provide a grounded model addressing the role of B2B brands in organizational buying behavior. Findings indicate that the direct role of brands in business-to-business buying is contingent on several factors, including the supplier's branding strategy, the foreignness or localness of the brand, features of the brand as well as an evaluative process of purchase considerations. Our findings provide a deeper understanding into how brand value is perceived by Nigerian buyers, consequently setting the foundation for suppliers to better comprehend buyers in emerging African markets.