It’s funny how many meetings and arguments I’ve sat through lately about the merits or utility of brands in tough economic times: “Why are they needed?”. “Do consumers even care?” And of course the most ironic chestnut of them all: “We can’t spend money on that stuff right now.”

To which I will repeatedly say the same thing I’m going to here now: You’re already spending money on your brand, and very likely wasting a ton of it on things like errant purchasing decisions, misaligned innovation, bad licensing deals, and disorganized or uninspired personnel.

You’re spending it on the oft-overlooked other half of your brand: the functional and operational one that drives the engine. And while it’s the less sexy stepchild of logos and TV campaigns more commonly associated with ‘brands’ the past 10 years or so, it’s arguably the more important one as it tells you when to run that campaign, or if you should at all, what media to mix, or what sponsorships to cut or pursue.

Indeed, in tough times a strong brand actually becomes a vital corporate decision tool that helps allocate time and resources to keep everyone moving forward on a single, straight path. And last I checked that’s pretty much the point of any enterprise, isn’t it?

So sure: if you’re simply regarding brands as superficial image-driven entities limited to the province of wacky creative types, then probably do hold off on the re-branding for a bit longer. But if you’re looking to work smarter not just harder and truly leverage every dollar and hour in 2010, then strengthening and ensuring the fundamental health of your brands should be at the top of any to-do list. And there are a host of smart, resourceful ‘non-creative’ types like strategists, researchers and planners who can work their own magic to help you do so.

At their best, brands can provide a prism through which to view and manage every aspect of business operations, fostering focus and even providing yardsticks for financial ROI. Which–getting back to my argumentative client we started with—is probably the sole agenda of their next internal meeting after ours.