Exploring the brand’s world-as-assemblage: the brand as a market shaping device

Abstract: Brands are integral to contemporary marketing practice. Notwithstanding their ubiquitous presence in marketing, the question of what brands do in the shaping markets remains understudied. We examine the brand as a market shaping device which acts within, and alongside, its world to actualise the reality envisioned. We base on ethnographic material on the Good African brand and on a performative text authored by the entrepreneur behind the Good African brand, to explore the unfolding agencement (brand world) and reveal the brand’s performativity achieved.