A $148 advent calendar should be a relatively easy product to get right. Twelve days of surprises, a recognizable brand and a built-in sense of occasion. Yet SKIMS found itself offering customers refunds after its accessories calendar triggered widespread criticism. Unboxing videos exposed a collection of hair accessories, keychains and other small items that many buyers felt did not justify the price.
The backlash was not simply about the contents. It was about the distance between what customers believe a brand represents and what they feel they are actually receiving. One TikTok unboxing attracted tens of millions of views, turning a product decision into a public conversation about value, trust and the limits of brand loyalty.
For a company valued at $5 billion in 2025, this is a relatively small commercial setback. But it raises a much bigger question: as brands grow, can they still understand the people buying from them?
Scale brings extraordinary advantages: reach, data, distribution and marketing power. It also creates distance. A brand can have millions of followers and still struggle to understand the different expectations within its audience. The problem is not necessarily that its customer base is too large. It is that a broad audience is often treated as one coherent community, when it is made up of people with very different relationships to the brand.
The opportunity for smaller businesses lies in that gap.
McKinsey's 2025 State of the Consumer report found that 47% of surveyed consumers across four major markets considered locally owned companies important to their purchasing decisions. One in five said local brands better fit their needs. That distinction matters. Consumers are not necessarily choosing local because it is cheaper. They may be choosing it because it feels more relevant.
For independent fashion labels, beauty brands, retailers and hospitality businesses, this creates room to compete through specificity. Knowing who your customer is, understanding the culture they participate in, responding to feedback and creating products that reflect their actual needs can be more valuable than trying to appeal to everyone.
There is a catch, however. Small does not automatically mean connected. The OECD's research on European retail shows that independent businesses still face significant challenges competing with large digital platforms, and that adopting the right technology is increasingly important to staying visible and productive.
Nor should large brands be written off. SKIMS' decision to offer refunds shows that scale can also bring the resources to respond when something goes wrong. The real question is whether feedback shapes decisions before a product reaches customers, rather than only after millions of people have watched it disappoint them.
For smaller businesses, the lesson is not to imitate the reach of global brands. It is to build something they cannot easily replicate: genuine relevance to a clearly understood audience. In a market saturated with visibility, being understood may prove a more valuable advantage than being seen.