1During the six-year span of my research on Game of Thrones, I received countless merchandise items. Nowadays, my office shelves are full of products, both official, unlicensed and fan-made, ranging from shirts and mugs to figures, jewellery, books and games. You can pretty much bet that if it exists, I have it. I bought less than 5% of the Game of Thrones merchandise I own, the rest was gifted to me. Friends, family, and even strangers assumed that since I was a researcher on Game of Thrones, I had to be a fan, and if I was a fan, I necessarily wanted merchandise. Indeed, one of the ways fans showcase their fandom and are recognizable to the outside world is through the objects they display of their universe of fandom. One can recognize a Harry Potter fan from the shirt, bag, jewellery, poster, phone case or even tattoo he or she is wearing or displaying. It is therefore not farfetched to think about gifting artefact from Game of Thrones to someone who is considered a fan, and thus, someone who is assumed to like possessing merchandise from their object of fandom, especially if said object of fandom is particularly well-known globally (I can only assume that I would have observed a similar behaviour if I had studied another popular franchise like Star Wars but maybe less so had I studied a more niche object for which merchandise would have been less readily available – to sum it up, people assumed I was a fan and Game of Thrones merchandise was easily available for purchase so they went ahead with it). These perceptions of fans’ practices and consumption led me to question the relationship between fandom and consumption, and more particularly how, what, and why fans consume merchandise from their universe of fandom.
2Starting as a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin in 1996 and adapted as a television show by the American network HBO from 2011 to 2019, Game of Thrones has been an incredibly popular show and famous case of television fandom. Its fandom spreads across a variety of media and Game of Thrones fans engage in various practices, ranging from online presence to on-site activities such as participation in conventions, cosplay, and fan tourism (Mudan Finn, 2017; Waysdorf & Reijnders, 2017). Amongst these practices, one of the most central ones, yet one of the most understudied, is fan consumption.
- 1 The estimates of HBO Game of Thrones revenues are high, although it is impossible to find exact num (...)
3When they consume, fans tend to consume branded merchandise called merchandising. Merchandising is defined by Buttle as “one of a selection of promotional tools available to both retailer and manufacturer” (1984). Comprised of products that can be bought and sold, merchandising entails artefacts ranging from tee-shirts to mugs, keychains, jewellery, and any material object that can be branded. Merchandising is one of the most important paratexts of the Game of Thrones franchise for both the network and the fans. Supported by a well-developed marketing strategy, Game of Thrones’ official merchandising and licensing are cornerstones of HBO’s revenues.1 According to Andrew Howe, in terms of merchandising, “HBO identifies Game of Thrones as both their largest and fastest growing commodity, commanding up to 75 percent of the market in Europe” (2015, 246). Merchandising contributes to the overall brand image of the programme and the network. In addition to the financial incentives and prestige that merchandising lends HBO, it is also crucial in fans’ experience of the franchise. Fans purchase merchandise to show their fondness and fandom (Hills 2002). Merchandise offers fans a way to engage and immerse themselves deeper in the Game of Thrones universe. However, fans do not only buy official and licensed artefacts. For financial, moral, political, and aesthetic reasons, they also turn toward unlicensed and fan-made products (Escurignan, 2017). Hence, consumption is an essential fan practice, and one deserving of more scholarly attention. This article therefore focuses its analysis on Game of Thrones fans-as-consumers. The goal here is to look at what and how fans consume, and why they engage in this practice: what does it mean for fans to buy merchandise? To answer this question, I undertook a mixed-method study comprised of qualitative interviews with fans and cosplayers of Game of Thrones, as well as of surveys distributed online to fans of the HBO series. The analysis presented here is part of a wider project on the experience of Game of Thrones transnational fans. A central methodological point is that this project crosses borders, and engages with fans in different locations and linguistic communities. The main starting point was to study fans who watch the television series and communicate in English, French, and Spanish. This includes fans around the world—but mainly located in Europe, the US, and Latin-America—since the fan websites and communication on social networks like Facebook do not respect country borders but are organized rather by language. For this practical reason, which also ties in with transnational perspectives on research methodologies (Beck 2007), I studied the franchise and its fans by language rather than nationality and/or country of residence, albeit I gathered data on the latter as well. This allowed me to have a global vision of the fan phenomenon related to Game of Thrones within these language groups while exploring ‘local’ (language and site-specific) particularities that characterize and, in fact, create different fan groups within and across borders. The latter were mainly visible through online fan communities (on Facebook groups and fan forums in particular) although it also translated on-site in the case of cosplayers and their participation to conventions. I will come back in more details on the methodology after presenting the theoretical framework upon which this research is based.
4Before diving into the practice and rationale for Game of Thrones fans’ consumption, I would like first to present the theoretical framework that structures this study. I will start by an overview of the research done in fan studies on the topic of consumption, before focusing on the notion of affect. I will finish this review by introducing Turkle’s concept of “evocative objects”.
5Fan consumption, the practice of buying and collecting objects by fans, is an emerging topic in fan studies. In his work, Santo underlines the recent turn in research toward “object-oriented” fans (2017, 329), albeit the studies to which he refers focus on creative fan communities rather than merchandise itself. c (Scott 2015) seeking to capitalize on their fandom by—among other things—developing businesses that sell ‘fan-made merchandise’ to other fans” (Santo 2017, 329). However, research on fan consumption of merchandise (Geraghty, 2014) or on fan-trepreneurs (Scott 2015) indeed show regard for these practices and prove the tangible development and interest for this topic amongst scholars. For Santo, merchandizing and its relationship to fandom matter because it is a way for media industries to (re)define fandom in terms of consumption, consumerism, and as a lifestyle category (ibid., 329). Despite fan-consumption being labelled an emerging topic, as soon as 2002, Matt Hills wrote that “fan-consumers are no longer viewed as eccentric irritants, but rather as loyal consumers to be created, where possible, or otherwise to be courted” (2002, 11). He highlights a change in mindset and marketing perspective from part of the entertainment industry, from fans as “eccentrics” to fans as consumers. Once considered consumers, fans become targets to be seduced and persuaded to purchase. Fan consumption is an interesting, yet complex, topic. Indeed, “fans are both commodity-completists and they express anti-commercial beliefs or ‘ideologies’” (ibid., 19). As such, fans want to own everything they can about their object of fandom while criticizing the capitalist system in which it is embedded. While media industries try to court fans, wooing them into buying merchandise and volunteering as brand ambassadors (i.e free marketing tools for the industry) (Bourdaa and Delmar 2016; Gilbert 2017), they also pushback against fan creations, especially when these involve fans selling their own fan-made merchandise: “‘fan-made merchandise’ (i.e. objects built or crafted by fans and then either sold to fans or marketed as authentically fannish) has emerged as a contested practice” (Santo 2017, 329). Fan-made merchandise can either compete against official, licensed merchandise, or fill a gap in the merchandising offer of the franchise (Escurignan 2016; Escurignan 2017). While fan creation is not new, what makes fan-trepreneurs different is that the Internet allows them to set up online stores and make fan business their main professional activity or a significant secondary one (Santo 2017). For Santo, there is a real process of co-creation between fan-trepreneurs and their fan-consumers, where fans can commission work from shop owners on platforms such as Etsy. As such, he goes against Jones’ position that fan-made merchandise is not a participatory experience (Jones 2013). Therefore, while merchandizing is not a privileged practice amongst fan studies research, it is a cornerstone in fans’ experiences and as such deserves to be more closely analysed. One of the theoretical lenses through which I do it in this work is affect.
6Emotion is at the basis of fandom, as Duffett states, “the experience of emotion is central or at least initiatory to many forms of fandom” (2013, 135). Fandom and fan behaviour stem from emotion toward an object representative of their fandom. However, emotion is not quite the right notion to deal with what fans feel toward their object(s) of fandom. Indeed, for Duffett, “academics need a plausible language through which to talk about emotion (Jenkins 2006). One way of thinking about it in cultural studies has been to use American scholar Lawrence Grossberg’s idea of affect” (ibid., 135), crafted in the early 1990s.
7Affect is a difficult concept to define and theorize. Many have done so since the coining of the term, and its meaning fluctuates depending on the field: cultural studies, fan studies, political studies, and psychoanalysis use affect differently. I do not intend to give here an exhaustive perspective on affect, but rather highlight the definitions of the concept which will be of use in this work, most of which stem from cultural and fan studies. Following a cultural studies approach to which he belongs, Grossberg has tried to distinguish affect from emotion and claims that the first one is not a subjective experience but a “socially constructed effect” (Grossberg 1992). Matt Hills, on the contrary, argues for the subjectivity of affect and against affect as a mere ‘effect’ (Hills 2002). However, for Hills, fans’ affect goes toward the text first and not the community, which de facto neglects fans’ relationships with and within their communities. Moreover, Hills’ definition does not account for the subsequent behaviour of fans due to their affective relationship to an object. Therefore it does not shed light on the agency of fans in relation to affect. It is in this relation between affect and behaviour that I am interested here: can affect explain fans’ consumption of merchandise? Affect can evoke an intense fan attachment (Gregg and Seigworth 2010) and the strength of this attachment needs to be accounted for. Building on what we have already seen then, we can look at how Lise Dilling-Hansen follows in the footsteps of Grossman in defining affect as an empowering force and interestingly underlines the influence of affect on fan experiences: “affect shapes fan experiences and enables potential identity and social change; it also plays a big part in the imaginary work of fans” (2015), allowing them to imagine a relationship with their object of fandom. Likewise, Anna Wilson (2016) accounts for the influence of affect on people’s reactions and strengthens the position that affect can be an empowering force. She states that affect comprises “the physical and mental manifestations of feeling such as tears or arousal” (Wilson, 2016). For her, affect is comprised of “physical and mental responses” (ibid.) to feelings. Fans have feelings toward their object of fandom, and these feelings induce responses that fall under the realm of affect. According to Nicole Lamerichs, affect is an “integral part of fan practices” but also an homage to the universe of fandom:
In fandom, affect is a situated, interpretive phenomenon but also a self-reflexive, social process. Fans play with the affective experience of art and fiction consciously and in part also relive the narratives that they enjoyed and reconstruct them at fan spaces. Affect is an integral, conscious part of fan practices which function as a homage to existing fiction. (2014, 265)
8Here, affect serves as a way for fans to pay tribute to their object of fandom whilst also being intertwined in their own identity. It is a complex phenomenon that has a real impact on how fans act upon their object of fandom. Therefore, we can see how affect can work to explain fans’ behaviour.
9Game of Thrones fans are emotionally invested in the Game of Thrones universe and they display their attachment through various behaviours, amongst which is the purchase of merchandise. No wonder, then, that the industry uses emotional branding to reach fans and try to engage them in consumerist behaviour. The use of emotional branding proves the industry’s awareness of affect and its importance in how fans act toward their object of fandom. Jenkins states as much when he writes:
Transmedia promotion presumes a more active spectator who can and will follow these media flows. Such marketing strategies promote a sense of affiliation with and immersion in fictional worlds. The media industry exploits these intense feelings through the marketing of ancillary goods from t-shirts to games with promises of enabling a deeper level of involvement with the programme content. (2003, 289)
10In this case, HBO has fully grasped the importance of the emotional connection tying fans to the universe it created. It knows how to lever this attachment for profit through merchandise selling. It is therefore not only emotional branding that surrounds Game of Thrones fan-consumers but an affective economy meant to use the intense attachment of fans for profit. In the case of Game of Thrones, fans are looking for and therefore offered experiences, which are provided by the entertainment industry or independent entrepreneurs. However, the experiences offered always rely on fans’ affect for their universe of fandom. In the case of merchandise, branding aims at providing more than a mere object. The goal is to provide a full ‘experience’ of the Game of Thrones universe, an experience that is not fully rational but on the contrary deeply embedded in affect and emotions. Hence, even in the case of merchandising, what the industry is trying to provide and what fans are looking for is a truly affective experience (Escurignan, 2017). This experience is attained when fans do not buy merchandise for its functional value but for its symbolic value instead (Baudrillard 1968). This is what happens when objects become “evocative” (Turkle, 2007).
11In her book entitled Evocative Objects (2007), Sherry Turkle coined the eponym expression. For her, objects are to be seen as “companions to our emotional lives or as provocations to thought” (Turkle 2007, 5). The notion of “evocative objects” underscores “the inseparability of thought and feeling in our relationship to things. We think with the objects we love; we love the objects we think with” (ibid., 5). Fans foster an emotional connection with the merchandise they buy as part of their fan activities. These items allow them to display their fandom not only to themselves but also to others. This often leads to exchanges between fans and their relations on their object of fandom. A fan wearing a Stark shirt can be the basis for a discussion on Game of Thrones, as it references the universe’s Houses and one of which people support the most. Objects that can seem trivial are not deprived of reflective power and the artefacts that fans buy allow them to think about their object of fandom as well as to reflect upon their own identity:
The psychodynamic tradition–in its narrative of how we make objects part of ourselves–offers a language for interpreting the intensity of our connections to the world of things, and for discovering the similarities in how we relate to the animate and inanimate. In each case, we confront the other and shape the self. (Turkle 2007, 10)
12According to Turkle, people’s connections with both subjects and objects allow them to build and discover their own identity. For her, people develop a relationship with animate and inanimate objects alike. As such, products bought by fans can be seen as “evocative objects”. Like in Turkle’s work, for fan-consumers, the focus “is not on the object’s instrumental power but on the object as a companion in live experience” (ibid.: 5). The value of objects then resides in their symbolic and emotional value rather than in their functional or exchange value.
13Now that I have presented the theoretical basis upon which this study is based, I will turn toward its methodology and provide an overview of the data set analysed.
14This study uses a mix-methods approach consisting of qualitative and quantitative methods. The rationale for this methodological choice was to obtain a global perspective on the subject through answers to questionnaires as well as more in-depth, qualitative data through interviews. The qualitative data comes from interviews done with cosplayers undertaken online through Facebook and Messenger and during three weekends of fieldwork at conventions, namely MCM London Comic in London in October 2016 and May 2017, and HeroFestival Marseille in November 2016. In total, I interviewed 32 French and English-speaking cosplayers. Cosplayers are very visible and committed fans but represent a minority of the Game of Thrones fan population. Indeed, my findings show that this haptic practice is undertaken by 2% of the Game of Thrones fan population surveyed. However, they are fans who engage in a time- and money-consuming practice and who travel to events (conventions and meetings) for said practice. Cosplayers are therefore amongst the most committed part of fandom and as such, understanding their purchasing behaviour is highly relevant. Indeed, it allows to grasp how some of the most involved and loyal parts of the audience react to marketing strategies and to the development of a mercantile transmedia universe. What’s more, as visible elements of the fandom, cosplayers are to some extent influencers within their community and some of them gather considerable followings. Their behaviour can therefore become influential to other members of the community. Understanding how they consume in relation to their object of fandom is thus of utmost importance for industry executives and researchers alike. The interviews with them were recorded, thematically coded on NVivo and Excel to distinguish specific themes, common points and discrepancies, and then thematically analysed to identify the main themes raised by participants.
15The quantitative method used was online surveys. I designed three questionnaires in three languages (English, Spanish, and French) that address many aspects of fans’ experiences, from watching the series and meeting with fellow fans to consuming merchandise. I administrated them on Game of Thrones English-speaking fan forum Westeros, Spanish-speaking Hielo y Fuego and French-speaking La Garde de Nuit, on these forums’ Facebook pages as well as on other Game of Thrones fan communities’ Facebook groups. I also relayed them on my research website,2 on my Facebook page, and personal Twitter account, where it was shared by social media managers of fan communities. The questionnaires were available for 1 month and 16 days, opening on June 1st, 2017 and closing on the day Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 1 aired (July 16th, 2017). These questionnaires were given to those who identify as “fans” of Game of Thrones in order to see patterns of difference in their engagement and appropriation of the franchise. In total, 1,954 people responded: 995 English-speaking respondents, 482 French-speaking ones, and 477 Spanish-speaking ones. The surveys were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively (Bennett 2018). I undertook quantitative analysis through Qualtrics and Excel, which allowed me to assess statistically significant practices and overall trends. The qualitative analysis was made through NVivo, which allowed me to find the main themes that came back from responses to open-ended questions. I also read all open-ended answers and noted the themes and stories I distinguished from them. Albeit these questionnaires have been crafted in three languages, they only represent the perspectives of the fans who answered them and I do not claim they represent the point of view of all Game of Thrones fans. I acknowledge that there are many fans who either do not speak the languages in which this study was conducted, or speak the language but did not fill out the questionnaires.
16In both instances (interviews and questionnaires), I asked fans about their consumption as part of their fan practices and this study provides an analysis of the answers I obtained.
17Having introduced the theoretical and methodological frameworks of this project, I will now present the results.
18I gathered data on Game of Thrones fans’ consumption in order to understand what fans buy, how they buy, and why they do so. Hence, in the surveys, I paid particular attention to what type of products fans consume (official, licensed, unlicensed or fan-made) and which artefacts they favour. The online questionnaires have shown that less than 20% of Game of Thrones fans engage in consumption: 17% of French-speaking fans, 17.8% of Spanish-speaking fans and 21% of English-speaking fans. According to the questionnaire data, consumption is in the top 4 of fans’ practices: amongst all the activities that fans can engage in, consumption makes it into their top 4. This shows how prevalent it is in fans’ experience. Nonetheless, in terms of numbers, only one fifth of the population surveyed actually engage in it.
Official vs. unlicensed products ownership amongst Game of Thrones fans (by language group)
19Out of the 17% of French-speaking fans who buy merchandise, a vast majority (84%) own official HBO products while only 15% have unlicensed artefacts. Similar patterns are seen with other-language-speaking fans: 73% of Spanish-speaking fan-consumers own official merchandise and only 26.5% possess unlicensed products. 77.5% of English-speaking fans have official items and only 22% have unlicensed ones. We can see here that these numbers are quite close, with Spanish and English-speaking fans’ purchasing behaviour closer together than with French-speaking fans. In all cases, an overwhelming majority of fan-consumers favour official artefacts while between only 1/7th and 1/4th turn to unlicensed products.
20To find out which products were favoured by fans, I looked at the ten most used words in the answers to the open-ended questions. I then cross-referenced the answers of all groups of fans (French-, Spanish- and English-speaking). The questions differentiated between merchandise “in general”, “non-HBO creations owned by fans (unofficial products)” and “fan-made products”. The goal was to see what types of products are preferred in each category and if there are any differences between them. In the answers to the question about general merchandise, nine words designing products are repeated often by fans: figurines (cited 52 times by English-speaking fans and 34 times by French-speaking fans), especially the brand Funko (cited 43 times by English-speaking fans and ten times by Spanish-speaking fans, separately from the term ‘figuras’) and the Funko range ‘Pops’ (cited 49 times by English-speaking fans), shirts (cited 115 times by English-speaking fans and 27 times by French-speaking fans), games (cited 59 times by English-speaking fans), books (cited 50 times by English-speaking fans and 18 times by French-speaking fans and 12 times by Spanish-speaking fans), posters, mugs and glasses. It is interesting to see that two categories of preferred objects are actually licensed: figures are not made by HBO but by licensees such as Funko or Dark Horse, and games, apart from card games, are always licensed (Game of Thrones Monopoly or Game of Thrones Risk, for example). The books are also prevalent, showing that they are seen as an element of the HBO Game of Thrones universe and underlying the constant exchanges on various platforms between the different adaptations of the story. Finally, the most used words cover merchandise items that are offered the most by both official and unlicensed platforms, but apparently also the most owned by fans: shirts, posters, mugs, glasses. These products are everyday items that are quite reasonable in price and that can be used in different settings (at home, at work). They are also practical for fans to display their fandom, as clothing can be worn outside one’s home and mugs and glasses can be transported.
21Seeing these answers allows for a better understanding of the overwhelming presence of shirts and mugs on the HBO website but also on platforms offering unlicensed artefacts (such as Etsy). These products are answers to the demand of fans. In turn, their visibility encourages fans to purchase them. Supply and demand are met.
22In addition, the questionnaires highlight that most merchandise-owning fans own both official and unlicensed items. This is the case for 66% of Spanish-speaking fans and 54% of English-speaking fans. French-speaking fans, however, predominantly own official merchandise (48% of French fan-consumers have both official and unlicensed merchandise). The difference in unlicensed artefacts ownership between English and Spanish-speaking fans on one hand, and French-speaking fans on the other, might be related to the availability and knowledge of unlicensed merchandise for French-speaking fans, as well as for access to HBO merchandise for Spanish-speaking ones. Indeed, exchanges with Spanish-speaking fans from Latin America has shed light on the unavailability of HBO merchandise in Latin-American countries, resulting in fans buying unlicensed products instead. Among the unlicensed products owned by fans, eight appear in their open-ended answers: shirts and clothing in general, figurines, jewellery and in particular necklaces (cited by both Spanish and English-speaking fans), books, mugs, and games. This list enables two main observations: first, it is quite similar to the list fans made of the overall merchandise they own. It seems that fans’ taste for artefacts is similar whether the objects are official or unlicensed. Some of the items that appear are more specific, such as ‘necklaces’ and ‘jewellery’ which are areas where unlicensed products outnumber official ones. Nonetheless, the presence of terms like ‘Funko’ and ‘Pop’ calls into question fans’ understanding of the term ‘unofficial’. It seems that fans might not always make a clear difference between licensed and unlicensed objects, as Funko figurines are licensed and official but not “HBO merchandise,” per se.
23Albeit most merchandise-owning fans own unlicensed products, only a minority actually possess fan-made merchandise: 28% of English-speaking and 13% of French-speaking fan-consumers do. On the other hand, 42% of Spanish-speaking merchandise-owning fans buy fan-made artefacts, which is still a minority but considerably more than French and English-speaking fans. As seen above, this might be due to questions of access to official merchandise for fans in Latin-American countries. There are two tendencies among the terms used by fans to describe the fan-made items they own: many words cover similar artefacts seen earlier to describe general merchandise and unofficial products. For instance, jewellery, shirts, clothing come back in open-ended questions in the three languages. However, some terms do not appear (everything related to figures for example) and others are cited for the first time: costumes and elements related to cosplay, art and fanart (as well as words linked to them such as drawings, posters and frames). These words reflect that fan-made merchandise fill a gap in the HBO merchandising strategy. The lack of costume-related products as well as official Game of Thrones art on the HBO shop is compensated for by fans through fan-made merchandise. The absence of terms linked to figures in these answers shows that fans understand the difference between ‘official’ and ‘fan-made’ products. The ‘grey area’ for them might therefore be located between the licensed and the unlicensed items, showing a potential need for clearer communication on this subject from the industry and its licensees.
24In order to understand not only what and how fans consume, but why they do so, I interviewed a specific part of the fandom: cosplayers. This allowed me to gather qualitative data on the rationale behind fans’ behaviour toward merchandise. Out of the 32 French and English-speaking cosplayers interviewed both online and at conventions, 68% said they have merchandise. From the outset, we should observe that a majority of cosplayers own products. Out of merchandise-owning cosplayers, 65% own official merchandise while 21% say they also have unlicensed products. The favourite item amongst English-speaking cosplayers is clothing (tee shirts) whereas Funko Pop! figures are the most popular amongst French-speaking ones.
25As we saw previously, fans buy to have a keepsake of something they are attached to. In the case of Game of Thrones fandom, the basis of fandom is affect for its object, here Game of Thrones. This affect is born from one being in contact with Game of Thrones and therefore developing an attachment for the series and its broader universe. This affect toward the show has, in turn, consequences: it is because one is a fan of the series that one will engage in fan and/or consumerist practices, such as, in this case, the purchasing of merchandise. What’s more, affect is comprised of “physical and mental responses” (Wilson 2016) to feelings. Consumption is a particularly easy-to-spot physical manifestation of feelings of attachment toward Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones fans are emotionally invested in the Game of Thrones universe and they display their attachment through various behaviours, amongst which is the purchase of merchandise. In the English-speaking cosplayers’ group, merchandise is a way for fans to show their fandom. A female cosplayer dressed as Margaery Tyrell asserted, “I have lots of the Game of Thrones’ tee-shirts because I like showing people that I am a fan even when I am not fully dressed as Margaery”. Another cosplayer said they wear tee-shirts and jewelry from Game of Thrones at work to showcase their fandom. Buying and wearing merchandise from a universe is therefore a way for fans to assert their fandom and their identity inside and outside fan communities.
26Of course, money matters also come into play when purchasing merchandise: some cosplayers admit that official merchandise can be too pricy for them compared to unlicensed or fan-made products. A French-speaking cosplayer explained that her purchasing pattern is based on “impulse buy[ing] as well as depending on what is in her wallet”. This claim is quite contradictory as an impulse buy is not generally a thoroughly considered purchased as trying to keep one’s budget in mind implies. Her remarks suggest that, if the price is within her means, she will buy in the spur of the moment rather than reflect upon the purchase. This type of behaviour is of course in favour of the industry, whose interest is to encourage fans to buy at events such as conventions. Indeed, events are places where the “crowd effect” can influence individual behaviour. The “crowd effect” (Claveau 2015) is a phenomenon where people gathered in crowds tend to react more impulsively: if one person decides to buy something, others are more likely to follow suit because they do not want to lose the opportunity. Conventions are therefore places where the industry can financially benefit from both fans’ affect and from the “crowd effect”.
27Another recurring topic amongst cosplayer-consumers was the search for meaning. While they did not express it like this, the discussions amongst cosplayers surrounding the purchase of fan-made merchandise or official replicas reflect this idea. Whilst only a minority of merchandise-owning cosplayers purchase fan-made products, most of them know about them and have a positive opinion of them. For those who buy these products, they do so because the items are cheaper but also because they prefer the design and they like to support the artists. During interviews on-site, one cosplayer said, “I also really like supporting an artist”, a claim with which several participants agreed. Another cosplayer noted, “if you’re going to Etsy, that’s where the artists are”. A third one added, “also some designs, like tee shirts, they’re way cooler if they’re fan made. The original designs are not that fancy [other participants agreeing]”. While design has to do with personal taste, supporting artists, and more particularly fellow fans, is proof that these cosplayers are looking for meaning in the way they consume. Indeed, these cosplayers qualify fan creators as artists, showcasing the value they put in their creativity: creating original merchandise is an act of artistic creation. Through the act of purchase, they are not only looking to obtain a product but to financially and socially support an artist. Therefore, buying a piece of merchandise goes beyond a mercantile exchange into an act of support that gives sense to the purchase.
28Other cosplayers find meaning in consumption through the acquisition of replicas and not of ‘mere’ branded product. Amongst the 32 cosplayers I interviewed, one English-speaking male cosplayer and one French-speaking male cosplayer had official sword replicas from the show. These items are worth noticing as they are amongst the most expensive types of merchandise. I asked both cosplayers the reasons why they had bought them. For the English-speaking cosplayer, it was because he was a “massive fan” of the show. His attachment for the series drove him to buy this object. For the French-speaking cosplayer, meaning was the reason for his purchase. He explained:
- 3 Original quote in French. Translation by the author.
I don’t want to buy a product because it’s a Game of Thrones product, it needs to interest me, that’s why I bought a sword. The sword isn’t a goodie to me, it’s really an object, it’s a real object. The Hand of the King is an object. Buying a mug, unless it has been used [in the filming of the show] or it’s a replica of what has been used [during the filming of the series], these are the only reasons for which I’d buy it. I don’t buy an object only because it has been branded.3
29Hence, for this fan, his attachment to the show is not enough to drive him to consume: his consumption must be more meaningful, the objects must be more than objects to him. They must represent something to him or evoke something in him. Hence, the use of the term “meaning”, it raises questions on its link with affect. Henry Jenkins has argued for the deep interrelation between meaning and affect:
Meaning is always bound up with affect on multiple levels: meaning is not data, trivia, or information. Meaning is contextualized. It grows out of an affective set of experiences, and is the vehicle for creating social connections with other people. So it’s not purely an intellectual or abstract, cognitive category: it’s embedded and embodied in all kinds of affect. When I talk about meaning and investment, those are both words that, to my mind, are already talking about affect. (2006, 24)
30If we follow Jenkins’ theory, when talking about meaning, this fan was actually talking about affect. The meaning that this object has to him is deeply connected to his feelings toward the universe of fandom. This sword means something to him because it represents the character or House he relates to and because, as a cosplayer, it allows him to develop a deeper connection with Game of Thrones through an object that is both official and a “real” object from the series, a replica of what is shown on screen.
31The testimony of this cosplayer uncovers two important reasons for the purchase of merchandise: the affective relationship between fans and their object of fandom, and the characterization of these items as “evocative objects”. Indeed, the search for meaningful consumption is related to the purchase of “evocative objects”. Merchandise bought by fans can be seen as “evocative objects” insofar as for fan-consumers, the focus “is not on the object’s instrumental power but on the object as a companion in live experience” (Turkle 2007). This is what we observed with the French cosplayer who owns an official sword replica: the focus is not the object’s instrumental power (battle, or rather today, display) but on its role as an affective companion to the fan’s experience. Purchasing merchandise can therefore go beyond the affective relationship between a fan and its object of fandom, to re-focus the relationship between the fan and the product itself.
32In this article, I have analysed what, how, and why Game of Thrones fans consume merchandise. I have done so through quantitative data derived from online surveys and qualitative data obtained through interviews with cosplayers. The analysis shows that there is homogeneity in terms of what and how fans consume no matter the language they speak (English, French or Spanish): while an overwhelming majority of fan-consumers favour official artefacts, a majority also own unlicensed products and a minority fan-made ones. Fans favour the same products, i.e. shirts, clothing, figurines and jewellery. However, not all fans are consumers: about one fifth of surveyed fans engage in consumption (between 17% and 21% depending on the language group to which the fans belong), while more than two thirds of interviewed cosplayers do, showing that there is still a substantial portion of the fandom that does not purchase merchandise. The difference between the number of consumers amongst the survey respondents and the cosplayers can be attributed to the engagement of the fans who answered: while the online questionnaires might have attracted fans who ranged from very engaged to less so, on-site interviews, especially at conventions which are central places of consumption for attendees, reached much more engaged fans, hence fans more likely to consume. Thus, the more committed fans are, the more likely they are to consume.
33Furthermore, fans consume merchandise for a number of reasons. Affect clearly impacts consumption: it is because of their attachment to the Game of Thrones universe that Game of Thrones fans buy products. Whether it is official merchandise allowing them to showcase their identity as fans and supporters of the industry or fan-made artefacts bought for their uniqueness and to support the fan community, affect is the driving force behind fan consumption. However, questions of identity and meaning as well as issues of price also come into play. Price is a central question for cosplayers who are fans already engaged in a time- and money-consuming practice: for them, merchandise comes second to cosplay and whether they buy official or unlicensed merchandise will depend on their financial means. No matter where they acquire their products, fans buy them to display their fandom and their identity. Some of them also look for meaning in their consumption: in this case, they purchase artefacts that have ‘meaning’ to them. As Jenkins showed, the notion of meaning is here akin to affect. As objects are bought for their symbolic value and not for their “instrumental power”, these products then become “evocative objects” (Turkle 2007).
34Affect is therefore at the heart of fan consumption, but other elements have to be considered to account for fans’ purchasing behaviour: economic means, access, geographical location, and cultural environment all participate in fans’ decision-making processes and whether they can purchase merchandise related to their object of fandom. For some fans, access to official merchandise is just non-existent because of the geographical location they live in (this was the case in South America for the Spanish-speaking fans surveyed, and the official HBO shop is not available in Europe anymore), while for others, the price of the products can be a major factor of whether they can purchase merchandise or not. Fans can also be reluctant to show their fandom publicly amongst non-fan audiences, especially if they live in cultural environments that are more wary of Anglo-Saxon pop culture (as was the case for some of the French-speaking fans). Hence, despite the affect fans feel toward their object of fandom, there are a number of reasons that can explain what they consume, how they consume or why they do not.