Creating ‘value’ beyond the point of production: branding, financialization and market capitalization

The contemporary significance of branding as a source of value is explored by situating the creation and valorization of brand equity within ‘the full circuit of capital’. Conceived as a form of co-production occurring in the sphere of circulation (as well as production), brand-building is connected to: the surpluses generated by the labour of user-consumers as well as the designers and producers of branded products and services; the realization of surplus through control of revenues derived from sales of these products and services and the appropriation of surpluses, including the conversion of brand equity into brand value after deduction of costs. Contemporary investment in branding is related to the financialization of brands as intangibles that make a growing contribution to market capitalization. By attending to multiple facets of the circuit of capital, including the co-production brand equity by user-consumers, some pointers are proposed for developing a more ‘joined-up’ view of the ‘bigger picture’ of contemporary capitalist reproduction.