The idea that a brand can be pinned to a single “proposition” is starting to look quaint. Not wrong — just built for a world that no longer maps to the reality of how buyers encounter brands.
The modern buying journey is a mosaic. Nobody receives your message in order. Nobody sits still long enough to absorb a neatly crafted argument. Instead, your brand shows up in micro‑moments: a product screenshot in Slack, a booth graphic someone walks past at speed, a partner slide, a three‑second pre-roll, a headline skimmed on LinkedIn between meetings.
And in those split seconds, people aren’t evaluating your story. They’re trying to recognise you.
Attention Is Fleeting – On Most Digital Channels
≈85% of online ads don’t hold viewer attention beyond ~2.5 seconds, despite that being the proven threshold for memory formation to begin. So attention is hugely important when it comes to building memory for your brand.
Despite this – many B2B Tech marketers are still using low-attention marketing channels and expecting to build mental availability with their buyers.
Average attention amount per marketing channel:
- <1 second per email in inbox
- 1.7 seconds per organic social post
- 2.5 seconds per paid search ad
- 2.8 seconds per digital display ad
- 4.4 seconds per bus stop ad
- 6 seconds per billboard view
- 9.7 seconds per streaming/CTV ad
- 10.1 seconds per radio/podcast audio ad
- 11.8 seconds per TV ad (average for 30 second advert)
As you can see by the average buyer attention per marketing channel, many marketers are ignoring the data and using the directly attributable channels, despite them being so low attention. This would be fine, because those channels are still vital, if brands were consistent across all of them and building a memory structure through repetition.
Brands Are Now Built Through Fragments, Not Statements
The reality is simple: memory beats messaging.
People choose brands they can spot, recall, and trust without effort. Not because they’ve absorbed a carefully written line, but because the brand feels familiar and coherent wherever it appears.
Most B2B brands fall down not from bad strategy, but from inconsistency of maintaining that strategy. Every team, channel, and agency “interprets” the brand differently. Over time, what should form memory dissolves into noise.
The answer isn’t a cleverer proposition — it’s a stronger pattern.
What B2B Tech Brands Need Instead
1. A Minimum Viable Memory
Define the tiny set of recognisable cues that must show up everywhere: shapes, colours, motion, tone. If someone sees one tile of your brand out of context, could they still say, “That’s them”? If not, the pattern isn’t strong enough.
2. A Pattern System, Not a Paragraph
Build a small, strict set of visual and verbal rules that apply across ads, UI, decks, events, and sales materials. A brand is a rhythm — not a slogan.
3. Consistency at Low Attention
Your most frequent exposures also have the least attention. These are the moments that anchor memory. Optimise for recognisability first, message second.
4. Product as Media
For tech brands, UI is often the most consistent touchpoint buyers actually experience. Treat it like brand surface area. Make sure the product looks like the brand, not just the website.
5. Repetition Without Embarrassment
Internal boredom arrives far sooner than external saturation. B2B teams often change assets long before the market has even noticed them. Repeat your distinctive cues until they’re unmistakable.
The Shift That Matters
Old model: Explain the brand, then hope people remember it.
New model: Make the brand recognisable, then let meaning build over time.
In a fragmented, accelerated, multi-stakeholder buying environment, the brands that win are not the ones with the sharpest proposition. They’re the ones that show up consistently, recognisably, and reliably — across every tiny, imperfect moment that forms the real customer journey.
If you want to build a B2B tech brand that survives that chaos, start with pattern, not prose.
Checklist: Is your brand ready for the fragmented world?
- We can state our Minimum Viable Memory in one line
- Our Brand Library covers visual, verbal, and behavioural rules with examples
- Our Fragment Hierarchy maps every touchpoint by amount of attention
- We’ve triple-coded our distinctiveness (shape, colour, motion)
- Our product UI expresses brand assets consistently
- We run fluency audits and measure Distinctive Asset Attribution quarterly
When the world meets you in fragments, patterns beat propositions—every time. Can your brand withstand fragmented touchpoints?
