ABSTRACT
THE BRANDED WORLD intersects with the art world in numerous ways. However, the separation of art and business – into high and low forms of communication and culture – has had a profound influence on how art is viewed by researchers, cultural critics, and consumers alike. Management courses infrequently include topics of art, art history, or visual culture. Art historians seldom discuss the cultural power of brand imagery; marketing researchers rarely apply art criticism and history – although this is changing (e.g. Gombrich 1999, Schroeder 2005a, Venkatesh and Meamber 2008). An artcentred approach to marketing, branding, and consumer research suggests re-framing this tradition to acknowledge the commercial mechanisms inherent in the art market, branding’s prominent place in visual culture, as well as the interactions of aesthetics and economics.
