Hi Balaji,
Here’s my take on this subject
Branding = Advertising ; Disagree
Advertising = Expensive ; Agree

I think there are mediums like the newsletter which can create strong branding for any industry and yes far less expensive than advertising.
Am saying this purely from my experience of creating professional newsletters for various industries.
A typical example I can think of is this newsletter that we do for a company that deals with neurotic and psychotic drugs. From the time we started this bi-monthly newsletter just over a couple of years ago, about 5000 psychiatrists in the country have been able to relate to this brand and is definitely boosting their sales due the recall value created by this newsletter. The total cost (Design, Content and Print) of this 8 page (A4 size) newsletter for a year (6 issues, 5000 copies) was under 4 lakhs.

The cost incurred by a professionally designed typical 4-page newsletter of lets say 1000 copies (e-newsletters works out cheaper as you don’t have printing costs) including sending out will be around 30k. You chose to have a bi-monthly issue of the same, we are talking about less than 2 lakhs a year to reach out to your customers/partners, which I believe creates a strong brand recall value if presented well.

The beauty of a newsletter is that it’s far less intriguing to take that space in your mind (which can be negative when it comes to ads and brochures alike). It’s subtle and hence more accepted.
There’s more about the newsletter and its functions in one the articles I wrote for Business Gyan sometime back. It can be accessed here.

http://www.businessgyan.com/below_the_line/news_letter_an_instant_facelift.html

Can't think of any other medium for now, will update when I do...

Sandeep Nanu
www.cbeyond.in