The law of double jeopardy also applies to mental attitudes: not only are small brands massively disadvantaged compared to the market for the same investment relative to big brands, but often the small brand manager's brain works differently from the big brand manager's. Otherwise, fake gurus wouldn't exist.
The structured brand manager knows that to dramatically lower the cost of conversions relative to the marketing budget (not the single campaign, obviously), you need to work heavily on top-of-funnel. The small brand entrepreneur/manager is often anxious and focuses only on bottom-of-funnel. On one hand, bleeding out and paying way too much. On the other, attending every course by the direct response marketing charlatans and other nonsense, and following the gospel of performance agencies (one of the industry's cancers).
It's a crystal-clear form of small-player disadvantage that starts from within. As if the external disadvantages weren't enough: fewer mental structures in the audience linked to the brand, less salience, less spontaneous and aided recall, less indexing, more expensive actions, fewer economies and efficiencies.
As if all that weren't enough, the brain and its fear pile on too.
