"Market Mediations offers a fresh way to look at consumption practices as well as design and branding issues through analysis based on the French and European intellectual tradition. The economy of brands truly came into being in the mid-19th century as a way for manufacturers to transform bulk...

Proposes that consumers shop for brand meanings, not just goods and services. Brands offer consumers intagible benefits such as symbolic relationship, a vicarious experience, and even a sense of identity. This semiotic dimension of brands, has more that academic interest for firms, since the...