[EroticySteve]

Branding has a value. That's for sure. However, to rely on branding as the success metric of a business isn't what Wall St. or even net investors are looking for when they are hedging their bets on the success of an entity. Branding is an asset when you're already a market leader and seek to maintain a competitive lead in your industry. However, as marketer who's worked on an independent basis with some very large mainstream companies, offline corporations and online corporations I can say that branding was a side effect of good marketing for me, not the goal.

I have been involved in $50 million dollar upstart marketing and branding budgets. Oh how I miss the dot com frenzy at times.