H3: The Brandfest and the Customer–Brand
Relationship
For Jeep owners who exhibited weaker connections to the
brand before the event, H3 was confirmed strongly; brandfest
participation led to more positive relationships with the Jeep brand. Those who felt stronger brand connections
before the event also showed strengthening in the customer–
brand relationship, but to a lesser degree. The main difference
in attitude shifts seemed to be a simple matter of room
for improvement; those in the upper measurement category
of the customer–brand relationship had already pretested at
such high levels that there was less room left in the measurement
scale to accommodate upward change.
Changes in the customer–brand relationship among customers
who previously had weaker bonds to the brand were
sometimes dramatic. For example, David, who was approximately
25 years of age and was the owner of a Ford Explorer,
had this to say after his Jeep 101 driving experience: