11 Consumer Fandom
Consumer fandom is a label (much like “civic fandom”) that is not always explicitly invoked (say, in contrast with far more typical adjectival associations like “celebrity fandom” or “sports fandom”). Part of the reason for this is the fact that so much of participatory culture and all the varied fandoms contained within intersect with the world of consumer goods. A crucial part of sports fandom, for instance, is the merchandise involved in displaying one’s membership in the ‘tribe.’ The influencer culture of celebrity fandom similarly depends upon the marketing of goods through interactive audience relations. In fact, ‘consumer fandom’ really drives home the argument that was made early on in this book/course that everyone is a fan of something. ‘Civic fandom’ emphasized the point that through fandom, audiences could exercise their agency as citizens, moving beyond existing as sheer consumers (the extent of public engagement by many). Consumer fandom emphasizes, however, the potential power of consumers. Consumer fandom connects the concept of consumer culture to fan-audiences and participatory culture wherein fans act not only as consumers but also producers and creators. In a straightforward fashion, consumer fandom can be defined as “subcultures, groups, and/or communities of like-minded consumer, revolving around a unifying interest or object” (Hao, 2020, p. 18). Everyone consumes ‘stuff’; by necessity, we all purchase products and many believe in the brands they bring into their homes and with which they decorate their lives. For some, though, that belief in brands and consumer products can become part of their identity — it can become a significant factor in determining what they do, who they do it with, how they spend their discretionary time, and what they care deeply about. For those individuals (what we don’t term consuming fans[1] or fans of consumption[2], but ‘consumer-fans’), the act of consuming becomes but an entry point into a wider sphere of participation.
Affuso uses the example of CoverGirl’s 2015 collaboration with Star Wars to point readers towards how “branded makeup lines extend beauty products into fannish spaces turning notions of beauty into tools of fan engagement” (2018, p. 186).[3] While this is a fascinating case-study demonstrating both the top-down and bottom-up push and pull dynamic of fashioning consumer fandom as participatory culture, we can also benefit from other research that seeks to explain the antecedents of consumer fandom. What (affective) factors help characterize consumer-fans and influence people’s decisions to become active members of brand-based communities? Hao (2020) identified two self-related antecedents: self-identity and self-discovery, and three social-related antecedents: social integration, social enhancement, and subjective norms.
Regarding self-identity, people often look to consumer goods (or consumer activity) for assistance in marking who they are and where they s