What Really Happened to B'Laban Brand?

The PR and Marketing Crisis of B'Laban Brand

What happened to B’laban is not just a PR & Marketing disaster—it’s a case study in what happens when business fundamentals are ignored.

This one is for the Marketers. 

B’laban was once a rising star brand crowned by its viral reels and online views. A dessert brand that captured the spirit of Egyptian youth, it rode the wave of virality with quirky content, influencer tie-ins, and sugary extravagance that appealed to the scroll-happy generation.

But here’s the thing about virality:

 It’s not a business model.

 And it doesn’t build trust.

As someone who’s spent years in marketing, I’ve seen how content can launch a brand—but without structure, ethics, and purpose, it can also break it just as fast.

Content is not Marketing. 

Social media is one very small vertical in Marketing. 

Sustaining a brand is not guaranteed through millions of views. 

What went wrong?

1. Hygiene & Safety (QHSE):

Serving dairy and desserts requires strict food safety protocols. With 26 food poising cases in KSA, followed by a hundred other in Egypt, it’s clear this wasn’t just an oversight—it was a complete disregard for health and safety. 

2. Risk Management & Compliance:

 Scaling without compliance is a recipe for collapse. Franchising a food concept demands risk frameworks and licensed professionals who understand regulation, not just expansion for the sake of fame. You don’t flex muscle with an aggressive expansion plan when you don’t have the right business risks assessed. 

3. Procurement & Ethics:

As a mother and conscious consumer, I’ve always steered clear of B’laban—not just because of the sugar overload, but because there was something fake and performative about their whole brand story. 

I always cringed at the way their food is presented and even constructed. Death by glucose is how this brand seemed to me. Has anyone every wondered how can a human body take in this much sugar ? 

How can a brand source this much pistachios, mangoes and nuts ? What quality are we being served ? Their sourcing was garnished with red flags. 

4. Leadership & Marketing Disconnect:

 This wasn’t a marketing failure. This wasn’t even a PR crisis. It was a leadership failure. The tears of the CEO on national TV said it all—emotion over purpose, reaction over responsibility. 

If B’laban had real marketing minds at the table, they would have steered away from the superficial and leaned into the timeless pillars of brand building:

Ethics.

Responsibility.

Real value over vanity metrics. 

Let this be a wake-up call to brands born out of TikTok and Insta fame:

True growth isn’t viral. It’s sustainable.

And good marketing isn’t just pretty content. It’s purpose, process, and trust.