The author is the brand that is either known or unknown, or perceived favorably or not. The author's brand is what matters to the reader. Readers don't care about the publisher or in our case, the distributor. I'd argue, however, that there's incremental benefit to the author brand by being associated with, and distributed by, Smashwords. Our books are hitting all the bestseller lists (10 of top 40 bestsellers at Apple iBookstore in Canada today are Smashwords -
https://twitter.com/markcoker/status/291591448468520961 ) and we're always working to create new opportunities for the authors we distribute.
Our Premium Catalog formatting requirements are stricter than the requirements of the individual retailers. I think this means that to any extent the Smashwords brand means anything to a reader (and I'd argue it means little - the author is king), the millions of Smashwords customers at our retailers that know our name know that a Smashwords title is well-formatted.