David left the Jeep 101 resolved to buy a new Jeep,
despite a long-standing family friendship with the Ford
dealer who had made him a deal on a top-of-the-line Explorer
sport-utility vehicle. Among non–Jeep owners who attended
Jeep 101, mostly as guests of Jeep owners, we interviewed
several who appeared to have become converts to Jeep.
Other evidence of improved customer–brand relationships
manifested in participants’ interactions with brand displays
and in purchases of branded products. Camp Jeep and
Jeep 101 participants report deriving considerable benefit
from Jeep heritage displays (which include Jeep advertisements
through the decades, a video about Jeep’s military
beginnings, and antique Jeep vehicles), engineering displays
(including life-size cutaway models of new Jeep vehicles),
and product displays (which include new Jeep models and
accessories). At these and other such events, we observed
brisk sales of branded accessories. Informants proudly wear
branded apparel from the events when they return home and
for long afterward (see Cornwell 1990)