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A cultural exploration of consumers’ interactions and relationships with celebrities

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2014
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Marketing Management
Issue number1-2
Volume30
Number of pages29
Pages (from-to)1-29
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date18/06/13
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper offers a cultural exploration of young adult consumers' everyday interactions and relationships with celebrities. Adopting an interpretive methodology, we build on McCracken's (1986, 1989) important work on cultural-meaning transfer, and integrate a contemporary understanding of consumers as co-creators of meaning, in order to explore their everyday experiences with celebrities. Findings suggest that consumers purposefully interact with celebrities in a diverse range of ways and actively engage in a variety of consumer–celebrity relationships. We conceptualise a range of consumer–celebrity relationship types and demonstrate the roles that celebrities can play in providing meaning and context to consumers' identity projects.