Hi Heidi,
It's an interesting point and one I definitely have found myself although in most cases it hasn't been against international brand names - sounds like you are doing very well, congratulations on your success.
One thought though - I ALWAYS find it easier to rank a site i've built myself than an existing site someone else has built, unless I basically rebuild the site's structure, content etc pretty much from scratch. I think what we both realise is that if you build a site correctly from the ground up you can't help but rank it reasonably well. But if it's not built right then it's a bigger job.
Hence why treating
SEO as an afterthought is a bad idea, and why "build it once, build it right" is the key message, the whole site needs to be built with
SEO in mind, and why working with a designer such as Heidi Price (or humbly, myself) who "gets"
SEO will get better results then treating it as an addon later once the site is built.
That said though, some industries / niches will rank fairly well with a well built site, but link building still does come into play.
Matt
__________________
Marketing Web - Attractive, SEO Friendly Websites, and Marketing Strategies that work!
Brand Police Blog - A take no prisoners look at marketing, SEO, web design and brand building.