The language of certain academic fields of study is further from the language of business than De Aar is from Helsinki, culturally speaking.

So it was with delight I came across the phrase, the "semiotization of the economy" in an article on design (as an approach to media research) by Ilpo Koskinen, in the Nordicom Review (November 2006). He's talking about branding, the bane of Naomi Klein.