What is "brand"? A frequently cited epithet goes: a product is made in a factory; a brand is bought by consumer. (Wang, 2008; 23) Media economy or mediation of the economy is understood in terms of the increasing role of markets and marketing. So it is called marketization. Brands: Markets, Media and Movement

Marketization describes the expansion of arrangements for bringing buyers and sellers together for self-advantaging exchange. Marketization has intensified in recent years as a part of what is sometimes called neo-liberalism (Harvey 2005): individual liberty and freedom can best be achieved by institutional structure that supports strong private property rights, free markets and free trade. The state should not be involved in the regulation of the economy too much, but should use its power to preserve private property rights, institutions of market and promote those on the global stage.

Mediatization refers to the increasing importance of information, image and media in the organization and expression of the economy, consumer culture and everyday life.

Arguments about the growth in importance of mediation relate to broader theories of what has variously been called cognitive or knowing capitalism (Thrift, 2005) or an immaterial economy (Lazzarato, 2004) in which activity or productivity is no longer limited to the workplace but distributed between the producer and the consumer, and reaches outside the economy unto everyday life.

D Branding becomes a visible force in the organization of production and consumption in industrialized countries. Aggressive competition between producers became even more intense due to the stretching of markets over national and international space.

From 1880s corporate logos were increasingly used to promote products (Coca-Cola, Campbell`s soup etc.) In this early stages brands were intended to allow the producer to speak "directly" to the consumer through presentation, packaging and other media. Here we can see conflicts between manufactures and retailers: some supermarkets develop their own brands.

By the 1950s and 1960s the discipline of marketing was able to have more active role in the coordination of production through its use of knowledge about customer. In 1960 we can see the publication of Theodor Levitt`s manifesto for global marketing revolution. Selling, he said: focuses on the needs of the seller, marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with seller`s need to convert his product into cash, marketing with the idea of satysfying the needs of customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it. (Quoted in Mitchell, 2001: )

The information about consumer was a pivotal resource. This led to the birth of marketing science, a research stream that could model and optimize market activities. The importance of statistics, psychology and behavioral analysis gave birth to consumer research, which helps to map the target and describe the market in terms of lifestyle.

Changes in the view of the producer-consumer relationship: no longer in terms of stimulus-response, the relation was already relationship through "creative advertising" (first in London). "Creative ad": to construct for consumers an imaginary lifestyle within which the emotional and aesthetic values of the product were elaborated. Branding becomes increasingly central to the internal organization of firms. Brands have now a dual role: exchange between producers and consumers and relationships within the company itself, between employers and employees. This called "brand engagement" and "internal marketing".

Branding by the last quarter of 20th century: set of marketing, distribution practices, media communication, product design, retail design. (Moor, 2007). Brand consultancies were launched. Branding has become a matter of increasing public concern (political activity of Naomi Klein in "No Logo").

In 2000 a survey of 200 senior UK managers revealed that 73 per cent anticipated restructuring their companies, building the working structure of the firm around the brand. This makes brand management a concern of management in general: the only unique elements in the company are its people and there should be certain values of this company that people share as part of their own values. "Brand new people" (people who present themselves as brands appear), so called "personal branding".

"Non-business" organizations (universities, political parties, football clubs) started to be presented as brands. Now for the social marketing the figure of the customer is central for both the public and private sectors. Tw_Wkhttp:// Tw_Wk (A short story of marketing) (what is branding)