The relative importance of the brand of music festivals: a customer equity perspective

The aim of the paper is to examine the relative impact of tangible and intangible factors on the success of music festivals. The paper draws on literature relating to hedonic consumption, customer equity, loyalty, and the success of music festivals. Data are collected among music festival goers by means of structured interviews in the Netherlands, one of the leading music festival markets in the world. The results show that brand equity aspects such as image, festival atmosphere associations, and (anticipated) emotions are most important for loyalty. Value equity (i.e. ticket price) plays some role but is less important than brand equity components. Interestingly, the program of the festival does not seem to affect loyalty in the current environment. Relationship equity components seem to play a marginal role at best. Implications for strategic marketing decisions in cultural industries are discussed.