ABSTRACT
To generate enduring loyalty and commitment, marketers need to understand how their offerings can facilitate the identity goals and enrich the social connections among the people who choose to co-creatively integrate a brand into their lives. The identity transformations took time—and lots of arduous training—as the skills and habits they formed through practicing the sport slowly became incorporated into their every demeanour. Researchers who study in a subfield of consumer behavior known as Consumer Culture Theory argue that "consumers" are better conceived as social actors who pursue their identity goals through consumption practices. The network of relations, rather than a specific good or service, is the key to understanding a person's purchase preferences, brand loyalties, and "needs" broadly defined as the resources that enable them to enact their identity goals. In the process of becoming derby girls, the women did also periodically act as consumers—for example, buying roller skates, protective gear, costume apparel, insurance and so forth.
