Fanatical consumers: towards a framework for research

Lays the groundwork for a conceptual framework that might be used to study fanatical consumers and consumption. We review literature on fanatics produced by psychologists, sociologists, cultural theorists, political scientists, theologists and marketers and then place their multidisciplinary insights into a consumption context. We identify two familiar features of fanatics – intensity and intolerance – but suggest a third feature – incoherence among thinking, behaviour and goals caused by intensity and/or intolerance might be the conceptual key to understanding fanatical consumers, measuring their fanaticism and interpreting their consumption experiences.