Your brand - personal or corporate - helps a consumer place you in their mind...are you a luxury provider? Low cost solution? One-stop-shop? Specialist in this niche?
Branding helps fill in a lot of gaps by answering these sorts of questions, which allows the consumer to process your message within a context of what they already know in this world.
This video post touches upon a point to consider as you build out your brand, for how you want consumers to understand your position in the marketplace.