Can you trust small brands?

Golf Refugees recently ran a competition for our infamous black golf balls on a blog from Buzzin media. Whilst some comments liked the neat idea of changing a colour of the golf ball to increase performance. Our original black golf ball, with it's ultra-thin black cover and metal-mix high conduction core, absorbs heat from the sun to increase the core temperature of the ball. The warmer a golf ball gets, the more efficiently it can transfer energy for increased distance.

Some commentators were concerned about whether you can trust a new idea from a relatively unknown brand?

Tiger Woods used to play and win with a Titleist ball, until Nike decided to pump lots of marketing money into the game of golf. Their strategy was to sign up the best players, and they duly offered Tiger a very lucrative sponsorship deal which others refused to match. At that time, unlike Titleist and Callaway, who set up their own golf ball manufacturing facilities. Nike used Bridgestone golf balls, they were simply transported from a Bridgestone factory and adorned with a swoosh to make them a Nike product. A while later, Tiger has continued his winning streak, now using Nike golf balls, and Nike have significantly grown their market share.

To me, this poses the question, why do people trust the larger brands? It's all just marketing, either by product endorsement or advertising or both. Tiger can win with any golf ball.