The logic of the brand

Adam Arvidsson ()
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Adam Arvidsson: Department of Media, Cognition and Comunication, University of Copenhagen

European Journal of Economic and Social Systems, 2007, vol. 20, issue 1, 99-115

Abstract: This article delineates the ideal-typical model of what I call the "logic of the brand". I argue the logic governing how brands create value, represents a paradigmatic example of the dominating value-logic of informational capitalism. Value is less based on the control of salaried labour and more on the ability to appropriate and commodify a socially produced immaterial externality. This externality consists in forms of knowledge; sociality and affect that arise in (relatively) autonomous processes of media enhanced sociality. It is the new empowered capacity to create what I call an "ethical surplus" that result from new information and communication technologies, that constitutes the real foundation for the wealth that brands valorise. The article suggests that the logic of the brand is applicable to a range of other socialized production processes, from the ethically conscious company to the contemporary participatory online economy, or Web 2.0.

Keywords: Brands; Cognitive Capitalism; Immaterial Labour; Information Society; Web (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M31 M37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:ejessy:0091

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