Exploring consumer fanaticism: a fresh perspective on the concept of loyalty

Abstract

Consumers often form close relationships with brands. Indeed, some brands have fanatical followers whose commitment to the brand transcends common levels of loyalty often depicted in the literature. Although this intense form of loyalty has received little empirical attention in consumer research, it is a concept well established particularly within the sports sociology and social psychology contexts. This exploratory paper proposes that an understanding of consumer fanaticism will bring fresh insights to the concept of loyalty, including the drivers and transitions between stages leading to the ultimate loyalty state. We explore literature associated with fanaticism and fan cultures to reveal that fanaticism is closely related to strong, intense, extreme, and emotionally driven loyalty. Preliminary insights have shown that fanaticism can be developed via a socialisation process or encouraged by socialising agents, and that it is driven by identification, self-esteem maintenance, attachment, personal importance, a sacralisation process, and various forms of desire