Jim Logan talks about the value of branding. His post can be summed up with this quote:

I bet if you paid corporate marketing personnel solely on the performance of the company, you’d have less branding campaigns and more direct response efforts - more offers with calls to action. Sadly, most marketing personnel aren’t directly compensated on revenue, growth, or profitability. Hence, you get a lot of marketing programs that are cute, but ineffective at making money.

Branding is great for our egos. Seeing your name on materials or sites is a good feeling. It gives one the sense your organization is doing something right.

Like Logan, I agree that marketing professionals need to be compensated on metrics — implying there is a measurement in place.

Dot Coms liked to brand.