H4: The Brandfest and the Customer–Company
Relationship
For those who felt less tied to the company before the event,
H4 was confirmed strongly; brandfest participation led to
more positive relationships with the Jeep corporate entity.
The owners who scored higher on this scale before the event
showed no significant change in this relationship. As for H3,
the main difference in attitude shifts between these owner
groups appears to be relative room for improvement.
Corporate image can play an important part in customer
reactions to a company’s products (Brown and Dacin 1997).
Our analysis, which examines perceptions of the company
as a caring and approachable entity, demonstrates that a
brandfest can effectively influence that image. Participants
report how impressed and respectful they are that Jeep
would go to the expense of hosting Jeep 101 or Camp Jeep
without introducing hard-sell (or even soft-sell) sales tactics. Consistent with gift-giving theory (Sherry 1983), the company
has given customers a gift, the brandfest, without pushing
for direct reciprocity, thereby creating a sense of indebtedness
or generalized goodwill on the part of the customer