Celebrity Fans and Their Consumer Behaviour : Autoethnographic Insights into the Life of a Fan

Ever since the dawn of the Hollywood star system in the early 1920s, consumers have been fascinated by film stars and other celebrities and their seemingly glamorous private lives. The public demand for celebrities has become so pervasive that it is arguably an essential element of our everyday culture and market economy, and the focus of increasing study.

This book explores the widespread phenomenon of celebrity fandom and provides a deeper understanding of why individual consumers develop an emotional attachment to their favourite celebrity and what this parasocial fan relationship means in their life. Based on an in-depth insider study of a consumer’s fan relationship with a film actress, the book provides unique insights into the celebrity-fan relationship, revealing the meaning it has for the consumer in everyday life, and how it evolves and expresses itself over time.

While this book is primarily located within the field of consumer research, fandom and celebrity are of interest to a variety of academic disciplines. It will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience from marketing and consumer research, film studies, media studies, cultural studies, and sociology.

Markus Wohlfeil is a Lecturer in Marketing in the Marketing and Retail Division at the University of Stirling, UK. Previously, he has also been a Lecturer in Marketing at the University College Cork and the University of East Anglia, UK. As a self-confessed film buff and devoted fan, his research interests are in the fields of celebrity fandom, the experiential consumption of films, film marketing and the film industry in general.