06/03/2026
The Marketing Mistake That’s Costing Companies Millions
1-800-Flowers just told Wall Street what I’ve been telling small businesses for years.
“We hadn’t invested in the brand for a while. We are reversing that.”
Revenue had dropped 11.6%.
Market share fell from 14.3% to 9% in three years.
Here’s what actually happened:
They spent years buying clicks at the bottom of the funnel — chasing transactions, measuring everything, optimizing for immediacy.
And they forgot that people buy from brands they recognize.
Not just businesses they found in a search result.
I have this conversation constantly with growing businesses.
They want leads. They want sales calls.
They don’t want to hear about content, video, or brand.
But here’s the math their CEO explained to Wall Street:
→ Bottom-of-funnel ads don’t build a brand. They produce transactions.
→ Transactions don’t create retention. They create dependency on ad spend.
→ When competition increases, your cost-per-acquisition climbs — and your brand can’t absorb it.
Top and middle funnel aren’t soft metrics.
They’re the substance that makes your bottom-funnel spend work.
1-800-Flowers is rebuilding the brand now.
The question for your business is whether you’re building yours or whether your competitor will become the brand who grabs your customers.
