A few days ago, I was standing in a supermarket trying to buy toothpaste. This should not have been a difficult decision. After all, toothpaste isn't exactly cutting-edge technology. Most of us aren't conducting laboratory tests before brushing our teeth. Yet there I was, staring at a shelf filled with options. Some brands I recognised immediately, and there were a few I'd never heard of before. Of course, I reached for the brand I knew and had grown up seeing my whole life. You probably even know which brand I’m talking about.

Most people believe they make rational decisions. We compare alternatives, assess quality, weigh the evidence, then choose. Or at least that’s what we think we do. That’s what it certainly felt like when I was picking up the pepsodent.

The reality is, decisions are often messier than that.

In fact, one of advertising's most awkward truths is that sometimes familiarity itself can feel like quality. The more often we encounter something, the more “normal” it seems. And the more normal it seems, the more trustworthy it can start to feel. Before long, we often end up mistaking recognition for preference. Psychologists have studied versions of this phenomenon for decades.

People tend to prefer things they've encountered before. Not necessarily because those things are objectively better, but because they were familiar.

Research shows that the brain often interprets familiarity as a signal of safety. And perhaps this explains something strange about the famous brands we grew up on.

Perhaps their visibility was part of the reason for our perception of their superiority.

History offers plenty of examples where the most visible option wasn't necessarily the best option - and we know this. The most popular restaurant in a city isn't always the one serving the best food. The bestselling book isn't always the best-written book. The most-streamed song isn't always the most talented performance.

This paradox creates an interesting challenge for smaller brands. Many small businesses assume their biggest problem is proving they are better. Sometimes that’s true. But oftentimes the bigger challenge is simply becoming known. Because consumers cannot evaluate quality in a product they’ve never encountered.

Of course, visibility cannot compensate for a terrible product forever. Eventually reality catches up. So let's assume our small business owner has a genuinely good product that people are willing to pay for.

Even then, in Ghana, a good product rarely creates fame on its own. What instead happens is that fame often creates the conditions in which people perceive a product as good. Good enough to be chosen the next time they see it.

So my advice to small business owners is that they move beyond the question, ‘How do we find the next customer for our great product?’ and start asking, ‘How do we become one of the brands people think of when they are ready to buy?’

Because the goal isn't simply to make people aware that you exist. It's to make sure that if you have a toothpaste brand, it is one of the brands that people are familiar with when they're ready to buy toothpaste.