Reputation isn't as powerful as you imagine

Agreed, you can have a good reputation but if people don't know who you are or that you exist it can be hard to compete against the giants.

My 1995 PC Repair Shop and PC Sales could not offer the prices that Best Buy et al had to provide for new PCs because of the $500 Internet rebate. We couldn't enter the lower PC market because our wholesaler would only offer us just below retail prices if not retail prices on new parts. We could fix problems they couldn't fix, but then any problem they couldn't fix they sold a new PC or reinstalled Windows.