Becoming a Fanatic: An Exploration into the Development of Extraordinary Devotion to a Consumptive Object

Emily Chung, Michael Beverland, University of Melbourne Francis Farrelly, Monash University

Pascale Quester, University of Adelaide

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of consumer fanaticism and proposes a framework to understand the development of extraordinary devotion to an object. Multiple in-depth interviews were conducted on 'fanatical' consumers to construct seven life stories on which analysis was performed. Although existing portrayals of extreme loyalty are often depicted within group contexts, the findings showed that fanaticism can be an intensely personal experience that continues even with a lack of group or social support. The findings also revealed a number of themes to suggest that fanaticism usually involve a seed, the experience(s) of gratification, a conversion, and drivers that enhance consumers’ levels of devotion.

Background

A fanatic is an individual filled with personal passion so extreme it can sometimes be considered excessive (Passmore 2003). Fanaticism is a unique form of loyalty characterised by extraordinary (strong, intense, and extreme) levels of commitment, allegiance, devotion, passion, emotional attachment, enthusiasm, and involvement (e.g. Bristow and Sebastian 2001; Funk and James 2001; McAlexander, Schouten and Koenig 2002; Muñiz and O’Guinn 2001; Oliver 1999; Redden and Steiner 2000). Consumer fanatics (defined in this study as consumers who are extraordinarily devoted to a brand, product, or consumption activity) are unique because their interest in a brand is self-sustaining (Oliver 1999; Pimentel and Reynolds 2004). They often voluntarily engage in behaviours beneficial to the brand, and they remain loyal, sometimes despite poor brand performances (Doss 1999; Hunt, Bristol and Bashaw 1999; Pimentel and Reynolds 2004; Rifkin 1999; Rozanski, Baum and Wolfsen 1999; Schouten and McAlexander 1995; Whang, Allen, Sahoury and Zhang 2004). Fanatical consumers exhibit a deep love for the brand, and their devotion, passion, and enthusiasm can be considered infectious towards new customers and fellow admirers (Belk, Wallendorf and Sherry 1989; Holbrook 1987; Ji 2002; Pimentel and Reynolds 2004; Rifkin 1999). Such extreme forms of loyalty and devotion are clearly evident across a range of consumption contexts: Examples of extraordinary devotion can be found in Muñiz and Schau’s (2005) study of the Apple Newton brand community, Belk and Tumbat’s (2005) study of the “cult” of Macintosh, Thompson and Troester’s (2002) study on the natural health microculture, Kozinets’s (2001) study on the Star Trek subculture, Schouten and McAlexander’s (1995) study on the bikers’ subculture, Celsi, Rose and Leigh’s (1993) study on the skydiving subculture, and in Belk et al.’s (1989) Consumer Behavior Odyssey study on general consumer devotees. However, there continue to be calls for further research into understanding the drivers, and in particular, the transitions that lead consumers to such extreme levels of loyalty (Funk and James 2001; Hunt et al. 1999; Oliver 1999).

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Methodology

This study utilised a series of exploratory and in-depth face-to-face life story interviews to gain new insights into the phenomenon of fanaticism. Life story interviewing is a form of biographical research that provides in-depth understanding of an individual’s past experiences that shaped who they are today (Atkinson 1998; Atkinson 2002; Rosenthal 2005). Biographical research approaches, such as the collection of life stories, take informants chronologically through their lives, from childhood, through adolescence, early adulthood to late adulthood, examining issues, events and people associated with the phenomenon of interest (Douglas, Roberts, and Thompson 1988). Life story interviews "help us understand general developmental or social processes" (p.70) by exploring the influences surrounding an individual and how these influences shape his or her behaviours and personality development (Atkinson 1998). The importance of understanding the influences and past experiences that drive consumers' development of fanaticism and extreme loyalty towards a consumptive object (i.e. a brand, product, or consumption activity) suggest that life story interviews are most appropriate for this study. The interviews were conducted over the course of thirteen months on consumers who were recruited via purposive sampling (e.g. friends and friends of friends who were reported as fanatics or have experienced the ‘fanatic’ label). This technique was thought to be most suitable as informant familiarity can enhance candor and emotional openness when the subject matter may be sensitive (Price, Arnould and Curasi 2000), particularly due to the stigma associated with the ‘fanatic’ label . The analysis of seven life stories revealed a broad overarching pattern that represented the development and evolution of fanaticism in the consumers’ lives. This process has been conceptualised to include: the presence of a seed, the experience(s) of gratification, usually repeated, to result in a conversion, as well as drivers that periodically boost or enhance the consumer’s level of self-sustaining loyalty. For the purpose of this paper, one consumer and her life story will be drawn upon to illustrate each of these concepts. Ashley (Caucasian female, 27) is a toy collector. She is considered a consumer fanatic because her collection of toys has reached at least over ten thousand items. Ashley has lost count of the number of items she possess, and refuses to attempt counting them as it is thought to be an almost impossible task. Her friends have called her “crazy”, but she continues to collect and construct shrines for her toys.

Findings and Discussion The Seed The seed is a term used to conceptualise the origins from which passion and enthusiasm grow, evolve, and bloom. This generally consists of external factors and social influences surrounding an individual that encourage his or her initial contact and involvement with the consumptive object. Ashley was raised in a family of collectors. However, the key influences, as the life story interview reveals, may be her late father (because of the significant role he had played in the happiest times of her life) and her brother (believed to have been responsible for her current devotion to toys because he is a avid collector of what Ashley calls “boys’ toys” and started her collection of girls’ toys). Items such as super hero figurines, models made out of Lego blocks, and M&Ms merchandise filled one of the rooms of Ashley’s family home (formerly her brother’s bedroom), covering every available wall space, from

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floor to ceiling, as well as the ceiling itself (with soft toys sitting in hammocks hanging off it). The situation is similar with at least two other rooms of her family home. She explained:

“If he saw a Carebear or Rainbow Bright or something like that he’d buy it for me. So I used to say that my collection was his girl toy collection that he’s just ashamed (to be associated with)… he’s quite fanatical… I got more caught up through it through him… I wouldn’t collect as many, until (he) really got me into it.”

The origin of Ashley’s passion for toys can be said to be external to her, driven by her brother, and other social reasons such as not wanting to “be left out”:

“I grew up with my brother and my four boy cousins and I think a lot of the time to not be left out and to be able to play with them I had to do a lot of boys’ things. I still had Barbies and stuff like that. I wasn’t a tomboy or anything but yeah I appreciated their games as well as mine”

To avoid feeling left out, Ashley had to take interest in the same things as her brother and cousins, which led to her increased involvement with toys. The Gratification Experiences The experience of gratification involves feelings of satisfaction, fulfilment, indulgence, enjoyment, pleasure, delight, or a combination of these positive sensory encounter(s). When asked to describe a “peak experience” during the life story interview (i.e. a high point in life involving the experience of extremely positive emotions; an episode that would stand out in the memory as one of the best, highest, most wonderful scenes or moments in the life story), Ashley explained:

“(That) was when I got my Carebear. That was a pretty peak experience… when I was about six and my dad had gone on this long walk with Scouts, my dad was really involved in Scouts, and so he came back and I was sitting in I remember being in a van for some reason, I think it was the van that they came back (from Scouts camp) in, and he gave me this Carebear in the van and I was just so happy because I’d wanted one for so long and I just loved it so much”

Since the life story interview questions were not designed to specifically retrieve answers about one’s passion for a consumptive object, it was interesting that a toy played a role in one of Ashley’s happiest memories. The role of this Carebear was quite significant, given that she later revealed, “when I was really (young) all I wanted was a Carebear, and now I’ve got 60!” Since she had longed for a Carebear, the fulfilment of this desire brought her immense happiness. Ashley also revealed other fond memories of her late father, whose unexpected death was described as the saddest experience of her life. Faber (2003) suggests looking at the social and psychological factors from which the desire to fill a specific need stem from, in order to understand the motivation for gratification-seeking behaviour. By exploring Ashley’s life story, it may be said that her current and continue love of Carebears may indirectly relate to the memories of this peak experience of receiving her first Carebear from her much-loved father. Ashley claimed that ever since childhood, she had “always took comfort in toys”. Other comments suggested that perhaps the desire to feel positive emotions as a form of escape from a life dominated by a mundane job may be another driver of her toy-collecting.

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Conversion and Turning Points The conversion is conceptualised as a process whereby, as the consumptive object gains increasing significance and importance, what was originally an externally or socially driven involvement with the consumptive object converts into internally driven enthusiasm and passion. This may lead to the development of reliance or addictive-like behaviours because individuals learn (through repeated experiences of gratification) to rely on the object in his or her future encounters of a similar problem (Davison and Neale 1986; Hirschman 1992). In this case, Ashley has learnt to turn to toys every time she feels the need to experience happiness, or perhaps the need to be reminded of the peak experience involving memories of her father. This results in a form of dependency which is difficult to be terminated, and requires repeated investments of time, energy or other resources (Taylor 1991). The findings showed that these repeated investments led to Ashley’s extraordinary acquisition of toys, and some addictive or obsessive-compulsive elements (e.g. “I get a bit crazy about it… you can’t stop thinking about it until you’ve got it!”). In this process, Ashley’s involvement in toys converted from being socially driven to an internally driven enthusiasm and passion. Her involvement with toys began through social influences and reasons (e.g. her brother, and not wanting to feel left out), however, as the life story interview revealed, as she grew older, her level of passion towards toys remains at a high level, or even at an increased level, despite the absence of social drivers. Over time, toys became personally significant to Ashley, and although Ashley’s brother (who was the key driver of her involvement with toys) has moved overseas and ceased encouraging her toy-collecting, she continues to be extremely devoted to her toys and her collection. This departs from the existing literature that emphasises group or social dynamics in driving extreme loyalty and involvement with products or brands, and suggests that fanaticism can be intensely personal and can continue to intensify even without social support or interactions. Scammon (1987) suggested “intensification” occurs usually as a result of ongoing investments that lead to deepening of commitment. This suggests that as toys become personally important to Ashley, her commitment to them also intensifies. Driver of Self-Sustaining Passion & Enthusiasm The interviews showed that having undergone a conversion, the passion and enthusiasm for the consumptive object becomes self-sustaining due to a combination of the reliance and commitment that has been formed with the consumptive object. With Ashley, there is also a sense of obligation or “psychological trap” (Taylor 1991) underlying her loyalty:

“If I didn’t keep collecting I’d have to get rid of everything because what’s the point? If you’ve got all this stuff and you don’t keep adding to it, then what’s the point?”

The experience of psychological or dependency traps is consistent with non-marketing literature on fanatics (e.g. Taylor 1991); this results in even greater levels of reliance and commitment. However, the interviews showed that fanatics periodically back away from their passion because it can become too intense to be sustained for any longer periods of time. For example, involvement in the consumptive object may reach such high levels involving the devotion of most of one’s available energies and resources (e.g. focused onto that object at the cost of neglecting other areas and responsibilities) that the continuation of which may lead to negative consequences – the fanatic, in most cases, retracts to avoid such circumstances.

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“Usually I get a few (items) every couple of weeks… I have a surge of going into garage sales and op shops, so I’ll get a few every day for a few days… (But) I’ve got no room… It’s like you’re constantly trying to find space to display properly and because I don’t have a lot of shelves and stuff… because I actually have to live in my room, sometimes it gets, I get a bit angry with myself going, why do you have to collect so much and, you should chuck some stuff out, and you just go, no, no, and you have this internal battle…(I don’t have) space to put everything, it gets really cramped in my room and if I need head space, I can’t be there…I don’t have enough time… It’s a never-ending thing… I need to get more shelves I need to get more room.”

Ashley goes through spurts of toy acquisition (e.g. expansion and retraction of passion for toys) as part of her struggle to balance acquisition and “finding space”. The driver, or booster, is conceptualised as the influence that returns the consumer to the state of above-average involvement with the consumptive object (but not to the extent or at the cost of neglecting other important areas of his or her life). The interviews showed that this driver is usually a desire to feel or experience a certain (usually) positive emotion, or to neutralise negative emotions (e.g. in Ashley’s case, perhaps to feel that the efforts already made will not go wasted).

“I love setting up toys…Just looking at my Carebears that I’ve displayed, I just get so warm feeling, they look sooo good, if I can say so myself! I’ve worked for a toyshop for so long, I know how to display toys!… It is an endless thing. It’s like you’re constantly trying to find space to display properly…There is no end. None at all…”

Other drivers that may enhance Ashley’s involvement with toys include simple reminders of toys, e.g. seeing her Carebears or other toys that can become part of her existing collection. The sense of satisfaction (with her own efforts) she receives from looking at her arranged displays may also be another driver of continued passion for toy consumption. According to Ashley, these Carebears also offer her a “warm feeling”, which appears to be unique and not as easily obtainable through other means.

Conclusion

The use of life story interviews allowed us to delve into the deeper underlying motivations and reasons behind consumption. Without spending longer lengths of time with consumers and without learning about their lives, it is difficult to realise some of the true motivations driving their consumption, especially because extreme loyalty to a consumptive object is often driven by implicit needs and desires that consumers are often unaware of, or are difficult to be articulated. Our research revealed that fanaticism can be an intensely personal experience that continues to exist even with the lack of social support. This suggests that marketing efforts designed to appeal to the social needs of consumers may not be effective in sustaining continued loyalty to a brand. The discovery of a broad overarching pattern representing the development of extreme devotion allowed the construction of a framework for studying fanaticism, and revealed different points in which marketers may intervene to facilitate this development and convert consumer’s loyalty into self-sustaining forms of devotion and escalating commitment. For example, after first utilising social factors to encourage one’s initial contact with the brand, marketers should facilitate multiple

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experiences of gratification to encourage the development of a reliance-like attachment to its product(s) or brand. They should also research on and implement boosters that periodically reignite one’s passion for the object or brand. Future research should adopt this framework for other studies of fanaticism with the aim of refining this model. Research into understanding consumer fanatics is increasingly relevant to modern organisations as it provides alternative approaches towards building loyalty, and other marketing implications. For example, an organisation can explore ways to curb the (arguably negative) addictive and compulsive aspects of consumption for the benefit of consumers. Alternatively, marketers can harness it, and encourage consumers to develop an extreme level of attachment to their product or brand. Continued research into consumer fanaticism will also allow learning more about other different and unique consumer-brand relationships (characterised by extreme levels of loyalty and devotion) and the nature of these intensely personal consumption experiences that are yet to be captured by the existing literature.

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