The number of permutations of the 8 different brands is found by considering that there are 8 choices for the first placement, 7 choices for the second placement, 6 choices for the third placement, and so on until we reach 2 choices for the seventh placement and 1 choice for the eighth placement. [tex]8\times7\times6\times5\times4\times3\times2\times1=40,320\ ways.[/tex]