Credible but forgettable: B2B brands enter the Sameness Zone

SYDNEY, Today: Being credible is no longer enough for many APAC B2B brands, with new research finding most still struggle to explain why buyers should choose them.

Thinksmart Marketing’s inaugural 2026 APAC B2B Brand Relevance Index examined 100 publicly visible brands operating across the region. The research covered cybersecurity, financial services and fintech, professional services, and B2B SaaS and enterprise software.

Competitive Differentiation was the lowest or equal-lowest scoring dimension for 92% of brands assessed. For 68%, it finished outright last. While Competitive Differentiation averaged 70 out of 100, Proof & Trust reached 85. In other words, brands are increasingly good at proving they are credible. Making buyers care enough to choose them is proving rather trickier.

Thinksmart calls this disconnect the Brand Relevance Gap: the distance between what brands communicate and what buyers need during early evaluation. That gap carries commercial consequences because buyers are forming preferences increasingly early.

The report cites Forrester research showing 68% of B2B buyers begin purchasing with a preferred vendor already in mind. That vendor wins the business 80% of the time.

Thinksmart Marketing CEO and Founder Janine Pares said, “B2B marketing has never been more competent with most brands visible, with strong content and the ability to demonstrate credible effectiveness proof for their services. Unfortunately competence has become the price of entry, and the cost is the ability to stand out from competitors.

More content won’t solve the relevance problem if it is clinical and running towards the average of what everyone is saying in your category.” – Janine Pares, CEO and Founder, Thinksmart Marketing

“It means when buyers are choosing their shortlists they are picking between a number of credible organisations that look remarkably similar. If a buyer can’t quickly pick you apart from your competition and quickly understand why you’re different and why you matter, there’s a very real risk you won’t make their day-one shortlist and miss that sale.”

Thinksmart conducted the analysis using OutGrow Intelligence System, its AI-powered platform for assessing how relevant a brand’s market positioning is to buyers.

A lack of relevance can appear through weaker campaign conversion, slower sales, poorer-quality pipelines, increased hesitation and fewer shortlist opportunities.

The Index placed 76 brands inside Thinksmart’s ‘Sameness Zone’, where familiar category signals establish credibility but offer relatively little visible distinction from competitors.

Those familiar signals remain important, particularly in complex or high-risk categories. The opportunity lies in pairing them with a clearer, buyer-relevant reason to choose.

Buyers can see you, recognise that you are credible and still struggle to explain why you are the better choice for their situation.” – Janine Pares, CEO and Founder, Thinksmart Marketing

More than half of the brands were clustered within a narrow 10-point band between 75 and 84. Only 12 scored above 85 and reached the ‘Breakaway Zone’, where stronger relevance and distinction make the choice considerably easier for prospective buyers.

Professional Services recorded the lowest average weighted score of the four sectors, at 74. Every Professional Services brand assessed had Competitive Differentiation as its lowest or equal-lowest dimension, with the sector averaging just 64.

Visibility can also disguise weaknesses. Discovery Readiness averaged 82, yet 80 brands showed possible or strong marketing maturity bias. That means scale, recognition, content volume or digital presence may make a brand appear more relevant than its buyer-facing differentiation actually suggests.

Pares said, “Buyers can see you, recognise that you are credible and still struggle to explain why you are the better choice for their situation. The opportunity now is to make it much clearer why you matter, how you’re different and why a buyer should choose you over another credible alternative.

“That doesn’t just mean giving buyers more rational proof points, but actually finding ways to reach the human behind the decision and connect with their urgent needs now – make them feel a connection to your brand backed up by the proof-points.

“That becomes even more important as AI makes it easier for every organisation to produce polished content at scale. More content won’t solve the relevance problem if it is clinical and running towards the average of what everyone is saying in your category.”

Thinksmart has also launched its AI-powered Brand Relevance Diagnostic, allowing organisations to apply the Index framework to their own brand.

The tool identifies existing strengths, potential relevance gaps and opportunities to create clearer differentiation.

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