‘This article looks at the contemporary vogue for branding in business theory as symptomatic, less of success than of failure, of the attempts by businesses to avoid market failure. It sees the quest for brand added-value as an attempt to avoid diminishing returns, and looks at the ways in which branding raises the threshold to market entry at the cost of rivals. It also investigates the connection between re-branding, and attempts to overcome the barriers to accumulation at the international level by disciplining labour. The preoccupation with the value of brands – as opposed to the development of new production – is a telling insight into contemporary capitalist self perception.’
continues here
http://www.critiquejournal.net/jamesh35.pdf