Unless you adopt a definition of the term "brand" that is so general as to be useless, building the right brand is not the core of building a successful business; that is the kind of thing a PR firm would say.
For every Dropbox, there's a Heroku.
For every Dropbox, there's a Heroku.
This is especially important in the consumer space (when you buy a GoPro you don't just buy a camera, but buy into the whole extreme filming experience). There are other comparable cameras, but consumers don't even bother researching them. They buy the brand. This is why GoPro is a $2.5bn company today; Panasonic or Sony could have made the same product with typically obscure naming (XVH-800 whatever) and it would have remained just a niche thing.
People are buying an experience no less than they buy utility, and branding is core to that. I do look at branding in a very wide sense; to me GoPro's branding starts with the name, continues with their sponsored videos and ends with the product packaging and store display.
As one example, I can't think of a more generic name than Southwest Airlines, but somehow they've managed to brand themselves as the fun airline. With a little more effort, I'm sure even better examples could be identified. Coca-cola? McDonald's? Meaningless names.
same sort of start-up culture pervaded the industry
I'd say that's the problem right there. Shouldn't the importance of a name be relevant to the customers and not the founders? :)
"I'll put it in the Dropbox tonight."
If you treat this as an equation, you want to increase: % of people that 'Get' what you do (off the bat), and % of instances people can easily recall your name, the next time they have that problem you solve.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296304...
Consequently naming is not the end all be all of branding. But studies have shown that a name's: connotations, imagery, and ability to generate "top of mind awareness", has proven to generate equity and favorably move a company upwards in consumer preference ranking. This may be diluted at when a company reaches a certain critical mass.
But consider this: Why wouldn't you want a name that's expressive to: who you are, and what you do as a company? It makes you much easier to remember and talk about.
If you search brand name in google scholar there's many more interesting studies on this subject.
tldr: It's not everything but it certainly helps.