Can an artist and a brand co-exist peacefully in the same writer?

Once upon a time, aspiring authors were advised to simply hone their craft, work hard, try and try again, rewrite, submit their manuscripts, deal with rejection, dig deep to find the great story ideas, and eventually they'd get an agent, a book deal, an audience. In the past few years, however, they have also been advised to work on creating a "brand" so people will buy their books. The reasoning behind this is that an author is like a small business, and with so many options for being published, with so much competition among writers, creating a logo or a theme, and, in some cases, sticking to a specific genre as part of your "brand" is going to increase your visibility in a very crowded marketplace.

There are authors who publish under several names, creating a "brand" for each one:  giving their romance-writing persona a lyrical name like Lydia des Rosiers, their historical-fiction writing one a German or Anglo-Saxon or Celtic or name like Michael McCorrigan, their suspense-writing persona something similarly laden with plosives. Their mystery/suspense/thriller persona might even have a Balto-Slavic surname full of Z's and K's. They finally write a memoir or literary fiction under their own name.

The idealist in me wants to believe that if my writing is good enough, I won't need a logo or a tagline: "Creator of deep and poignant literary fiction"  "Author of thrilling mystery-suspense"; I think a good one for me might be"Welcome to my weird world" Or something.

There are so many articles out there, I can't possibly digest them all for you, so here are a few.  Read and weep--or take heed.  Your choice.

Here's one from the NY Times.
And one from a blog stating how essential branding is.
One from Writer's Digest.
And. . . .Cue my snark machine:  Building your brand in FIVE EASY STEPS! (can I get a Whoo Hoo!) (sorry folks-- I can't believe it could be this easy, okay?)

Finally, a dissenting opinion and apparently in the minority.

Is Bruce Springsteen a brand? I don't think so. Kurt Vonnegut?  No way.  In fact, I think I just heard him turn over in his grave. I'm sorry, but I still want to believe that someone who works hard to create great stories and pays his or her dues can succeed without hiring a marketing consultant. Or is that crazy talk? Should I wake up and smell the corporate coffee?