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2nd Edition

JOHANNE BRUNET | FRANÇOIS COLBERT | SANDRA LAPORTE


RENAUD LEGOUX | BRUNO LUSSIER | SIHEM TABOUBI

In collaboration with Jean-Luc Geha


2nd Edition

JOHANNE BRUNET | FRANÇOIS COLBERT | SANDRA LAPORTE


RENAUD LEGOUX | BRUNO LUSSIER | SIHEM TABOUBI

In collaboration with Jean-Luc Geha


Translator Karen Sherman
Marketing Management
2nd Edition Iconography

Johanne Brunet, François Colbert, Sandra Laporte, Renaud Legoux, Cover: Voysla/Shutterstock.
Bruno Lussier and Sihem Taboubi. In collaboration with Jean-Luc Geha
© 2018, 2014 TC Media Books Inc.
All translations of quotes in this book are our own
Managing Editor: Sonia Choinière translations. Chenelière Éducation is solely respon-
Editor and Project Manager: Annie Ouellet sible for the translation and adaptation of this work.
Permissions Researcher: Marc-André Brouillard and Patrick St-Hilaire
Copy Editor: Paul Paré
Proofreader: Laurel Sparrow
Book Designer: Julie Ménard Trademarks are mentioned or illustrated in this work.
Cover Designer: Byebye Bambi Please note that the publisher has not received any
income or advantages in return for having presented
these brands. The brands are reproduced upon request
by the authors to support the academic or scientific
content of the work.

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec


and Library and Archives Canada cataloguing in publication The complementary material published on our web-
site is intended for use by Canadian residents only,
Brunet, Johanne, 1951- for educational purposes only.
[Gestion du marketing. English]
Marketing management
Online purchases are only available to Canadian
2nd edition. residents.
Translation of the 6th edition of: Gestion du marketing.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-2-7650-7251-5
1. Marketing – Management. 2. Marketing. i. Colbert, François,
1948- . ii. Laporte, Sandra. iii. Legoux, Renaud. iv. Lussier, Bruno.
v. Taboubi, Sihem. vi. Geha, Jean-Luc. vii. Title. viii. Title: Gestion du
marketing. English.
HF5415.13.G4713 2017 658.8 C2017-940283-8

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


No part of this book may be reproduced by any means known
or not yet known without prior permission from TC Media
Books Inc.
Any use not expressly authorized shall constitute an infringe-
ment, which could result in legal action against the individual or
institution reproducing any part of this book without permission.

ISBN 978-2-7650-7251-5
Legal deposit: 1st quarter 2018
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Library and Archives Canada
Printed in Canada
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Foreword

This is the second edition of Marketing Management, a practical


introductory work that covers the most important concepts in contemporary marketing.
It aims to help students acquire a global and strategic vision of marketing and better
understand the contribution of marketing to business management.
All of the content of Marketing Management has been reviewed and updated to
reect the evolution of marketing in recent decades, along with foreseeable trends
in the years to come. is English edition remains true to the approach that has
made the original ve French versions of Marketing Management a success. Notably,
this original work adopts the managerial perspective and conveys the authors’ diverse
areas of expertise with content that focuses on the essentials.
e perspective highlighted in this work reects an approach that marketing
managers should seriously consider. Further, the content emphasizes important
marketing decisions and implementation of best practices.
Marketing Management is an original work that has been rened and improved
with each edition for over 25 years. Customized to meet the needs of its market,
the content fully reects the reality in Québec and the rest of Canada, while also
covering globalization and international markets.
Six marketing specialists, university professors, expert consultants and researchers
have jointly written the 12 chapters of the book. Marketing Management is neither
an encyclopedia nor a literary work, but its content is substantial. e authors
have striven to be concise, and have deliberately chosen to emphasize practical
information for marketing management students. Clarity, conciseness and synthesis
consistently characterize this book.
Marketing Management is structured in a logical sequence. Chapter 1 covers the
marketing approach and explains the fundamental marketing concepts. Chapter 2
presents the marketing process, and Chapter 3 species the key concepts of
marketing strategy: segmentation, targeting, positioning and dierentiation. Chapter 4,
which concludes the rst section, deals with creativity and innovation in marketing.
e second section of this book, which focuses on analysis, begins with Chapter 5,
IV Foreword

which explores how organizations analyze their internal and external environments
to make decisions and formulate marketing strategies according to four key concepts.
Chapter 6 immerses the reader in the marketing research universe, and Chapter 7
underlines the importance of interpreting consumer behaviour correctly. Lastly,
Chapters 8 to 12 examine each of the elements of the commercial mix in detail,
to help businesses make concrete decisions regarding products, services, brands,
marketing communication, relationship selling, distribution and price.
is second edition of the English translation of Gestion du marketing oers concrete
examples that reect the reality of the business world. Numerous examples have been
added, and many were replaced or updated since the last edition.
e author team is made up of Johanne Brunet, François Colbert, Sandra Laporte,
Renaud Legoux, Bruno Lussier and Sihem Taboubi, all professors at HEC Montréal.
ey thank Jean-Luc Geha, a visiting professor at HEC Montréal who collaborated
in this edition, along with Karen Sherman, translator, and the publishing team at
Chenelière Éducation: Sonia Choinière, editor-designer; Annie Ouellet, editor; Paul
Paré, copy editor; and Laurel Sparrow, proofreader.
Authors

Johanne Brunet, CPA-CGA, MBA, Ph.D. (Industrial and Business Studies,


University of Warwick UK), is a professor of marketing at HEC Montréal. She is
the co-director of the Catalytic Mindset, EMBA McGill-HEC Montréal, and an
associate member of the Carmelle and Rémi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management.
Her research interests include creativity and innovation in complex settings, product
development, international marketing and cultural industries. She sits on numerous
boards of directors in Quebec and the United Kingdom. She chairs the boards of the
SAQ and the SHDM.
François Colbert, C.M., MSRC, is a professor of marketing at HEC Montréal,
holder of the Carmelle and Rémi-Marcoux Chair in Arts Management and the
UNESCO Chair in Cultural Management, and co-director of the Master of
Management in International Arts Management. He is the founding editor of the
International Journal of Arts Management. An expert consultant and an author of
nearly 200 publications on the arts, he is also a member of the Order of Canada and
of the Royal Society of Canada.
Jean-Luc Geha, BBA, MBA, P.CRM., is a guest professor of marketing at
HEC Montréal, pedagogical coordinator of the marketing option in the BBA and
coordinator of courses on sales in the MBA and BBA programs. He is also the
director of the HEC Montréal Sales Institute. He has extensive experience in
the business world, where he has held various consulting and management positions.
As a manager, coach and mentor, he is renowned for his expertise in sales, call cen-
tres, and the customer experience, and for his ability to clarify complex notions that
link theory and practice.
Sandra Laporte, Ph.D., is an associate professor of marketing at HEC Montréal.
She holds a doctorate (sciences de gestion), an M.Sc. in management from HEC
Paris, and an M.A. in marketing and strategy from Université Paris-Dauphine.
Before joining HEC Montréal in June 2010, she taught at HEC Paris. She special-
izes in consumer judgment and decision under uncertainty, social inuences, sales
promotion and lottery design, and the impact of nancial dissatisfaction on eating
behaviours.
VI Authors

Renaud Legoux, Ph.D., is an associate professor of marketing at HEC Montréal.


He is the pedagogical coordinator of the Maîtrise en management des entreprises
culturelles. He holds a doctorate in management from McGill University. Prior to
his career in academia, he worked as a manager in the cultural sector. His research
focuses on consumer behaviour, marketing of the arts and cultural industries, and
customer satisfaction.
Bruno Lussier, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of marketing at HEC Montréal.
Holder of an MBA in administration from Laval University and a doctorate
(sciences de gestion) from the Université de Grenoble, his expertise lies in sales
techniques, sales force eciency, sales management, B2B marketing, relationship
marketing and positive organizational behaviour applied to sales.
Sihem Taboubi, M.Sc., Ph.D., has been an associate professor of marketing at
HEC Montréal since 2002. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration and an
M.Sc. in marketing from HEC Montréal. She teaches courses in marketing research,
market analyses, and, at the M.Sc. level, in analysis of demand. She was the peda-
gogical coordinator of the M.Sc. program between 2012 and 2017. She is also a very
active researcher. Her publications mainly concern applications of game theory in
modelling and resolving decision-making issues in distribution channels.
Table of contents

1.6.3 The consequences of technical


Part 1 Key Concepts ............... 2
advancement......................................... 27

Chapter 1
Marketing Approach ............. 3 Chapter 2
Marketing Process..................... 29
1.1 Denition of marketing................... 5
2.1 How marketing contributes
1.2 Milestones in the development to a company’s mission .................. 31
of marketing ...................................... 5
1.2.1 Production orientation........................... 5 2.2 Business strategies .......................... 32
1.2.2 Product orientation................................ 6 2.2.1 Types of business strategies ................. 33
1.2.3 Sales orientation .................................... 6 2.2.2 Analysis of strategic market
positioning............................................. 39
1.2.4 Marketing orientation............................ 6
2.3 Marketing planning ......................... 41
1.3 Basic marketing concepts .............. 7
2.3.1 The marketing planning process........... 41
1.3.1 Needs and desires.................................. 7
2.3.2 The marketing plan ............................... 42
1.3.2 Demand.................................................. 10
1.3.3 The market and its components ............ 13 2.4 Control................................................. 46
1.3.4 Exchange................................................ 15 2.4.1 Control: a cycle ..................................... 46
1.3.5 The result of the exchange process ....... 18 2.4.2 Control tools and objects...................... 46
2.4.3 Marketing audits................................... 48
1.4 Understanding the integrated
marketing model ............................... 21 2.5 Organizational structure ................ 50
1.5 The internal marketing 2.5.1 Functional structure.............................. 50
management process....................... 24 2.5.2 Product or brand structure ................... 50
1.6 The future of marketing .................. 25 2.5.3 Market or region structure.................... 51
1.6.1 The development of trade...................... 25 2.5.4 Matrix structure .................................... 52
1.6.2 The effect of globalized competition.... 26 2.6 Ethics in marketing .......................... 52
viii Table of contents

Chapter 3 4.6.1 Innovation and development


of new products and services ............... 98
Marketing Strategy................... 55 4.6.2 Marketing communication ................... 104
3.1 Segmentation ................................... 56 4.6.3 Distribution............................................ 105
3.1.1 Segmentation on consumer markets.... 57 4.6.4 Price ...................................................... 106
3.1.2 Business market segmentation............. 63
3.2 Targeting ............................................ 64 Part 2 Analysis ............................. 108
3.2.1 Selecting targets ................................... 65
3.2.2 Types of targeting ................................. 67 Chapter 5
3.2.3 Refocusing, or changes in targeting..... 70 Internal and External
3.3 Positioning ......................................... 70 Environments .................................. 109
3.3.1 Positioning of a new brand................... 71
3.3.2 Positioning of an existing brand........... 72 5.1 The SWOT model .............................. 111
3.3.3 Ensuring successful positioning............ 73 5.2 The TOWS model .............................. 112
3.4 Differentiation .................................. 76 5.3 The internal environment .............. 112
3.4.1 Bases of differentiation......................... 76 5.3.1 Objectives and mission
3.4.2 Perceptual map ..................................... 79 of the organization................................ 114
3.4.3 Statement of positioning....................... 81 5.3.2 Components of the internal
environment ......................................... 115
5.3.3 The value chain ..................................... 119

Chapter 4 5.3.4 Benchmarking ....................................... 122

Creativity and Marketing 5.4 The external environment ............. 124


5.4.1 The microenvironment.......................... 124
Innovation........................................... 83
5.4.2 The macroenvironment......................... 134
4.1 The creativity and innovation
process ................................................ 84
4.2 The role of research: explore Chapter 6
and innovate...................................... 87 Marketing Research ............... 145
4.2.1 Empathy ................................................ 88
4.2.2 Denition............................................... 89 6.1 Marketing information
system (MIS) .................................... 147
4.2.3 Idea generation..................................... 89
6.1.1 Internal data collection
4.2.4 Prototype............................................... 89 and analysis system ............................ 148
4.2.5 Test......................................................... 90
6.1.2 Marketing intelligence ........................ 149
4.3 The value chain ................................. 91 6.1.3 Marketing research ............................. 149
4.4 The business model ......................... 92 6.1.4 Role of the MIS .................................... 149
4.5 The creation of value: 6.2 Data ................................................... 151
marketing strategy .......................... 95 6.2.1 Typology of data ................................. 152
4.6 The marketing mix ........................... 97 6.2.2 Data collection .................................... 154
Table of contents ix

6.3 Marketing research ....................... 156 7.6 Sources of inuence


6.3.1 Exploratory research ........................... 158 on consumer behaviour ............... 201
6.3.2 Descriptive research ............................ 158 7.6.1 Internal inuences ............................. 201
6.3.3 Causal research ................................... 159 7.6.2 External inuences ............................. 211
7.6.3 Contextual or situational inuences ... 217
6.4 Steps of the marketing
research process ............................. 159
6.4.1 Preliminary analysis ............................ 161 Part 3 Commercial Mix ....... 220
6.4.2 Formulating the research problem ..... 161
6.4.3 Structuring the methodology ............ 164 Chapter 8
6.4.4 Construction of measurement
instruments ......................................... 177
Products, Services
6.4.5 Testing of measurement and Brands ....................................... 221
instruments ......................................... 179 8.1 Products and services ................... 223
6.4.6 Data collection ................................... 180
8.2 Product dimensions ...................... 224
6.4.7 Data analysis and interpretation ........ 181
8.2.1 Core product ...................................... 225
6.4.8 Communication of results
8.2.2 Related services ................................. 230
and recommendations ........................ 182
8.3 Product portfolio
management .................................. 231
Chapter 7 8.4 Brand management ....................... 233

Consumer Behaviour ............ 185


8.4.1 Brand equity ........................................ 234
8.4.2 Strategic branding decisions ............... 235
7.1 Understanding the consumer 8.5 Product life cycle management ... 238
is crucial ............................................ 187
8.5.1 Introduction phase .............................. 239
7.2 The study of consumer 8.5.2 Growth phase .................................... 239
behaviour ......................................... 188
8.5.3 Maturity phase ................................... 240
7.3 The integrated model 8.5.4 Decline phase ..................................... 240
of consumer behaviour................... 189
7.4 Characterizing the decision
process .............................................. 190 Chapter 9
7.4.1 Level of effort and involvement
in the decision ..................................... 190
Marketing
7.4.2 Cognitive and emotional decisions ..... 192 Communication ........................ 243
7.5 Steps in the decision process ..... 194 9.1 The role of communication
7.5.1 Recognition of a need ......................... 194 in marketing strategy ................... 245
7.5.2 Information search .............................. 194 9.2 Strategic planning in
7.5.3 Evaluation of options .......................... 196 communication ............................... 246
7.5.4 Purchasing decision ........................... 197 9.3 Target audience and consumer
7.5.5 The purchasing act ............................. 199 insight ................................................ 246
7.5.6 Post-purchase evaluation ................... 200 9.4 Communication objectives .......... 247
x Table of contents

9.5 The key message ............................ 250 10.4.5 Presentation of a business solution .... 302
9.6 The main types of media 10.4.6 Handling objections ........................... 304
and integrated marketing 10.4.7 Closing the sale and gaining
communication ............................... 250 customer commitment ...................... 307
9.6.1 Types of media ..................................... 251 10.4.8 Follow-up ........................................... 308
9.6.2 Incorporating components of integrated 10.5 Business development ................ 309
marketing communication ................. 252
10.5.1 Customer relationship management
9.7 Marketing communication software ............................................. 310
media ................................................. 252 10.5.2 Customer service ............................... 310
9.7.1 Advertising ......................................... 253
10.6 International selling ..................... 311
9.7.2 Public relations and media relations .... 259
10.7 Sales force management ............ 313
9.7.3 Direct and relationship marketing ...... 261
10.7.1 Role of the sales force manager ........ 314
9.7.4 Sponsorship ......................................... 263
10.7.2 Size of the team and sales
9.7.5 Sales promotion ................................. 268
forecasting ......................................... 314
9.7.6 Digital and mobile marketing ............. 271
10.7.3 Structure of the sales force ................ 315
9.7.7 Social media ....................................... 276
10.7.4 Recruiting and selecting salespeople ... 318
9.7.8 Alternative forms of communication ... 278
10.7.5 Compensating salespeople ............... 318
9.8 Creative strategy and the
10.7.6 Evaluating, training and motivating
advertising idea ............................... 280
salespeople ........................................ 319
9.9 Structure and role of
communication agencies ............ 281
Chapter 11
Chapter 10 Distribution ...................................... 323

Relationship Selling ................ 283 11.1 The rationale for distribution


intermediaries ............................... 325
10.1 Selling approaches ....................... 284
11.2 The functions of distribution
10.1.1 Transactional approach .................... 285 intermediaries ............................... 327
10.1.2 Consultative approach ...................... 286 11.2.1 Logistics function ............................... 328
10.1.3 Relational approach .......................... 286
11.2.2 Financing function ............................. 329
10.2 Relational selling approach ....... 287 11.2.3 Research function .............................. 329
10.3 The salesperson ............................ 288 11.2.4 Title transfer function ........................ 329
10.3.1 Salespeople’s activities ...................... 288 11.2.5 Promotion function ............................ 330
10.3.2 Main types of salespeople ................ 289 11.2.6 Sales function .................................... 330
10.3.3 Job outlooks ...................................... 291 11.2.7 Customer service function ................. 330
10.4 Selling process ............................... 292 11.2.8 Payment function .............................. 330
10.4.1 Prospecting ........................................ 293 11.3 Types of distribution
10.4.2 Pre-approach ..................................... 295 intermediaries ............................... 331
10.4.3 Approach ........................................... 296 11.3.1 Traders ............................................... 331
10.4.4 Needs assessment ............................. 300 11.3.2 Agents ................................................ 333
Table of contents XI

11.4 Distribution channels .................. 334 12.3 Pricing objectives ......................... 356
11.4.1 Distribution channel length ............... 334 12.3.1 Prot-oriented objectives .................. 357
11.4.2 Integration of distribution 12.3.2 Competition-oriented objectives ...... 358
intermediaries .................................... 336 12.3.3 Sales-related objectives ..................... 359
11.5 Selecting a distribution 12.3.4 Customer perception-related
network ........................................... 340 objectives ........................................... 359
11.5.1 Determining the intensity 12.3.5 Distribution intermediary-related
of distribution .................................... 341 objectives ........................................... 360
11.5.2 Selection of the type of channel 12.4 Pricing strategies .......................... 360
and intermediary ............................... 343
12.4.1 Pricing strategies determined
11.6 Multi-channel distribution with by competitive pressure .................... 361
an omnichannel strategy ............ 345 12.4.2 Pricing strategies dictated
11.6.1 Multi-channel distribution ................. 345 by consumer preferences ................... 362
11.6.2 Disruption in the various channels .... 346 12.4.3 Pricing strategies based
11.6.3 Conicts linked to a multi-channel on business costs .............................. 363
distribution strategy .......................... 347 12.4.4 Pricing strategies for a product line ... 364
11.6.4 Omnichannel strategy to resolve 12.4.5 Price and product life cycle ............... 365
conicts .............................................. 348
12.5 Pricing methods ............................ 367
12.5.1 Cost-based method ........................... 367
12.5.2 Competition-based method .............. 369
Chapter 12 12.5.3 Demand-based method ..................... 370
Price ........................................................... 351 12.5.4 Customer-based method ................... 370
12.1 Product prices ................................ 353
Photo credits .................................................. 375
12.2 Environmental inuences
on pricing ........................................ 354 Bibliography ................................................... 376
12.2.1 Economic environment ...................... 355 Sources Index ................................................. 389
12.2.2 Governments and the legal Subjects Index ................................................ 392
environment ....................................... 356
PART 1
Key Concepts
Chapter
1
Marketing Approach

Chapter outline
1.1 Denition of marketing
1.2 Milestones in the development of marketing
1.3 Basic marketing concepts
1.4 Understanding the integrated marketing model
1.5 The internal marketing management process
1.6 The future of marketing

Learning objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
dene the role of marketing within the company, along
with the components of the marketing concept;
distinguish between various marketing approaches;
describe the basic marketing concepts;
understand the basic marketing model;
recognize the components of the marketing management process;
understand the factors that inuence the future of marketing.
4 Chapter 1

The modern environment is complex: increasingly


sophisticated techniques are needed to bring producers and consumers together.
Marketing covers not only all these techniques, but also the process of planning
and managing marketing operations. Marketing serves to promote everything from
products, services, ideas, candidates for election, and celebrities to social causes.
Consequently, it applies to both for-prot businesses and non-prot organiza-
tions, in both the domestic market and foreign markets, and for selling to individ-
ual, industrial and organizational customers. Product manufacturers such as service
companies—accounting rms, advertising agencies, head-hunters, management
consultants, fashion designers—and stores and restaurants have to attract a large
enough clientele to be successful. ey all face the challenges of competition and
globalization.
is chapter provides an overview of the marketing eld and related concepts. First
we dene marketing and clarify its importance for a business. We then present the
main milestones in the development of this discipline. Key marketing concepts such
as needs, wants and demand, the market and its components, exchanges, trans-
actions, customer relations, value, quality, satisfaction and loyalty are then described,
to better understand the marketing model. We explore the internal marketing man-
agement process by discussing analysis, marketing strategy and the components of
the marketing mix. Lastly, we briey situate marketing in the history of develop-
ment of trade and in management science education, to prompt reection on the
future of marketing.

Flow chart
Marketing Approach 5

1.1 Denition of marketing


e denition of marketing has evolved considerably. Notably, Marketing
Peter Drucker (1994) asserted that the only purpose of a busi-
“The activity, set of institutions, and
ness (and hence marketing) is to create a customer. Guiltinan, processes for creating, communicating,
Paul and Madden (1997) believe that the expression “creating a delivering, and exchanging offerings that
customer” means identifying customers’ needs, pinpointing the have value for customers, clients, partners,
needs that the organization can satisfy at a prot, and develop- and society at large.” (AMA 2013)
ing products and services that convert potential buyers into cus-
tomers. McCarthy and Perreault (1984) dene marketing as the philosophy whereby
the organization aims all its eorts at satisfying customers, at a prot. In contrast,
Kotler and Armstrong (2005) dene marketing as a social and managerial process by
which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through exchanges of
products and services of value with others. e denition that we will use here is that
of the American Marketing Association (AMA), presented in the margin.
With the proliferation of supply, the concept of value for customers and society has
become central in marketing. Consumers are demanding because they can choose
from a large number of products. ey can easily go to another supplier if they do
not get what they want. e concept of social responsibility has also become quite
important in business relationships with customers.
at is why special attention must be paid to customer service. Customers not only
want a product or service: they want someone to listen to their needs and treat them as
though they were important. Above all, they want to have a positive experience when
consuming a product or service. Many businesses have understood this requirement
and have made customer service central to their operations. ey have understood that
it is much easier and less costly to keep an existing client than to try to gain a new one.

1.2 Milestones in the development


of marketing
Marketing has evolved in step with business philosophies and the economic context.
e main orientations that make up the milestones in the development of modern
marketing are the production orientation, product orientation, sales orientation and
marketing orientation.

1.2.1 Production orientation


is orientation focuses on production eciency that will lead to high qual-
ity products. It developed during the Industrial Revolution and lasted until after
World War II. e most important thinkers in this eld are Frederick W. Taylor
6 Chapter 1

(e Principles of Scientic Management, 1911) and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who
studied motion and the organization of work. ey advocated and promoted e-
ciency and ecacy. Similarly, Henry Ford introduced standardization and speciali-
zation on his assembly line. e production orientation is particularly eective when
productivity must be improved because demand exceeds supply, or when companies
want to reduce the cost of a product.

1.2.2 Product orientation


Some sellers think that consumers will always buy a good product at a reasonable
price, so a business only has to make the best product to automatically reap nan-
cial success. is is called product orientation . However, even if you market the
very best mousetrap, a consumer who does not have a mouse problem will not run
to the store to buy one, no matter how many bells and whistles it has. In any case,
a consumer with a mouse problem is not buying a mousetrap, but a solution to
the problem. Proponents of product orientation assume that consumers are com-
pletely informed about everything available on the market and that their purchases
are always “rational,” in the economic sense of the term. However, what we know
about consumers indicates that they do not always buy a product or service for
objective reasons: emotions and the unconscious play an important role in the buy-
ing process. At any rate, if there is no need to begin with, the chances of selling a
product are nil.

1.2.3 Sales orientation


Some people think that all you need is a good sales and communication strat-
egy to convince a consumer to buy a product. is is called the sales orientation .
Once again, these people overlook the consumer’s needs and presume that they can
convince the consumer to buy their product by skillfully applying one of the com-
ponents of their marketing strategy. It is true that in some cases it is possible to sell
a product to someone who has absolutely no need for it. However, the chances of
pulling o this feat a second time with the same customer are very slim.

1.2.4 Marketing orientation


Finally, the idea behind the marketing orientation is to satisfy the customer while
keeping the company’s goals in mind. is orientation focuses on the consumer
rather than the business.
It represents a shift from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market. A sellers’ market is
characterized by a shortage of products or services, whereas a buyers’ market features
an abundance of products or services. Since the end of World War II, myriad prod-
ucts and services have entered the market. As a result, the marketing orientation is
found in all organizations whose objective is to succeed over the short and medium
terms. is orientation converts needs into demand by concentrating on the benets
that products and services can oer.
Marketing Approach 7

1.3 Basic marketing concepts


Any business, whatever its size, performs two basic activities: producing and selling.
A craftsman who works alone in his shop has rst to make his product and then to
nd a buyer. In a large corporation, the process is more complex and requires sophis-
ticated management functions: accounting, human resources, logistics, production,
information technology, etc. It is the role of the marketing function to identify the
appropriate consumers and try to sell them the product manu-
factured by the rm. e marketing function also discovers what Product
products these consumers want, and then reports back to the
production division on what it needs to produce, and in what A manufactured product, a pure service or
a clever mix of both.
quantity, format, etc.
e marketing function therefore plays a vital role for a business. Its work is par-
ticularly dicult when competition is plentiful and dynamic. A company that has
the assurance of holding a monopoly can impose its will on customers to a certain
extent, but such monopoly situations are rare. Sooner or later, competitors enter the
market, and the company has to adapt quickly or perish. Barely 20 years ago, Bell
Canada had a monopoly on telephone communications. e arrival of satellite and
cell phone communications took away that monopoly, and Bell has had to adjust.
e following section presents the key basic concepts that underlie the marketing
function. ey consist of needs and desires, demand, the market and its compo-
nents, exchange, and the result of the exchange process, including customer relations,
value, quality, satisfaction and loyalty.

1.3.1 Needs and desires


One of the basic concepts underlying the market phenomenon is that of need, whether
expressed or latent. If a product does not correspond to a consumer need or want, it
will be dicult to market. Contrary to popular myth, marketers do not spend their
time trying to create consumer needs any way they can. Certain fundamental needs
already exist, and marketing merely attempts to identify them and then meet them
by creating the appropriate product. Abraham Maslow (1954) asserted that human
beings satisfy their needs in a sequence beginning with physiological needs (food,
water, etc.). ey then seek to satisfy their need for safety and protection (security), the
need for belongingness (love, friendship), the need for esteem (prestige, respect from
others) and lastly the need to self-actualize (see Figure 1.1, on the following page).
Self-actualization is not dened in the same way by each individual. For example,
some people are drawn to scientic knowledge, others to cooking and still others to
meditation. Businesses can use this pyramid to ensure that their product corresponds
to the type of need that they aim to satisfy. Massimo Fumarola, vice-president of
Ferrari, says that people do not need to own a Ferrari to go from point A to point B.
Any other car could even be much more ecient, he adds. In fact, owning a Ferrari
is a form of self-actualization—a very compelling way to position a car in this highly
competitive market (Conroy, 2007).
8 Chapter 1

Figure 1.1 Hierarchy of needs from Maslow

Analysis of the messages conveyed by consumer product manufacturers shows that


many of them are crafted to meet consumers’ real needs, but not necessarily the needs
that are the products’ basic reason for existing. A consumer is buying not a camera,
but memories; not cosmetics, but the desire to be beautiful; not a soft drink, but a
symbol of youth; not a simple piece of clothing, but a reection of their personality.
In addition, while some products may at rst glance seem frivolous, closer examina-
tion may show that they meet deep needs, sometimes irrational ones, but important
enough to lead the consumer to buy them. ree typical examples are potato chips,
cars and clothing.
Some may claim that potato chips have no nutritional value, that people do not eat
them for nourishment and that they are useless. Has the need for them been entirely
fabricated by marketers? In reality,
many people associate eating potato
chips with relaxing. ey eat them while
watching television, for instance. e
product may not meet their need for
nourishment, but it does satisfy their
need to relax.
Similarly, one could argue that the
function of an automobile is strictly
to convey passengers from point A
to point B. If this were the case, then
there would be no need for the prolif-
eration of makes, models, colours and
A car may satisfy the need for a utility vehicle, the need for prestige or the need to options. Although for some consu-
belong to a group. mers an automobile is merely a means of
Marketing Approach 9

transportation or a utility vehicle, for most people it is more than that. Many see it as
a symbol of prestige, power or style. Marketers try to pinpoint these needs as accu-
rately as they can and then ensure that their company’s products meet these needs, as
the Ferrari example illustrates.
Finally, in the area of clothing, fashion is an eective means of displaying personality
traits in terms of taste, comfort, social standing, being part of a group, etc. Clothing
is a visible symbol of who we are or who we want to be. Even people who want to
be dierent from the rest of society at all costs, or who reject society, still display the
external signs of their refusal in the way they dress. Punks are a striking example.
Clothing no longer simply meets a need for protection from the cold but is also a
way to dierentiate oneself, or show that one belongs to a social group. It thus meets
needs for a sense of identity and belonging.
ese examples clearly show that it is important to distinguish between need and
want. Need is a state of lacking something: being hungry, needing aection, having
to earn a living, etc. A want corresponds to a way to meet this need—for example,
satisfying your hunger by choosing an Italian restaurant instead of a fast food
restaurant.
Of course, consumers are sometimes duped by product promotion. ere are many
examples of dubious or outright fraudulent practices by which unscrupulous people
try to take advantage of the naïveté or vulnerability of certain consumers. Fortunately,
this is not a widespread practice. e AMA has established a code of ethics for its
members stipulating that “Marketers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor
and dignity of the marketing profession by being honest in serving consumers, clients,
employees, suppliers, distributors, and the public” (AMA, 2003). is code also sets a
guideline for each of the variables in the marketing mix, such as product safety, fraud-
ulent advertising and price xing. More and more businesses have their own customer
service policy designed to prevent unethical conduct and to build customer loyalty.
If popular belief gives marketing experts so much power, it is because people perceive
only the visible part of the marketing of a product (its advertising) and are often
unaware of the commercial failure of other products.
e concept of needs and wants is denitely fundamental in marketing: Backed by
purchasing power, a want is transformed into demand. Market dynamics are there-
fore based on consumers and their needs. Consumers change over time and so do
their needs and wants; the marketing analyst has to monitor these changes so that
the business can adjust to them and survive. A business that The marketer’s job is to identify the needs
does not pay attention to these changes risks nding itself in (and wants) of customers and to try to meet
a dicult situation. is is what happened to North American them with the right products, at the right
carmakers that did not adjust in time; they lost crucial ground price, through the right distribution network,
to Japanese carmakers. GM, once the world leader in the auto using the right communication tools and
industry, was outpaced by Toyota, which still dominates the unparalleled customer service.
market (Leblanc, 2014).
10 Chapter 1

1.3.2 Demand
Consumers express needs that a business tries to meet with a series of products or
services. A consumer can be an individual, but also a business, government or associ­
ation. We use the term consumer here in its broadest sense to designate all economic
agents (industry, government, distribution market, etc.), not just an individual mak­
ing a purchase. e term “customer” refers to the person or entity that makes the
purchasing decision. For example, when it comes to dog food, the canine is the
consumer, but the dog’s owner is the customer.
Demand Consumers buy products or services and thereby create what
economists call demand. Marketers try to meet consumers’ needs
The quantity of a good or service that
economic agents buy in a given market.
by carrying out one of the key tasks of marketing: managing
demand.
Market demand is expressed in transactions carried out to acquire a product. It can
be expressed in units of quantity (volume) or in monetary units (dollars or other
currencies). One measure or the other will be used depending on the need and the
availability of data.
Expressing demand in volume often represents reality most accurately because the
results are not inated or, on the contrary, are not underestimated because of higher
or lower prices. It is therefore easy to compare data from one year to another; the
basis of comparison is similar.
For instance, from 2013 to 2014, box oce revenues (demand) for performing arts in
Québec rose from $229 million to $238 million, a 4% increase, whereas the number of
spectators climbed 2%, from 6.7 million to 6.8 million (ISQ, 2015). To be able to compare
the dollar increase in sales to the rise in audience volume, you must negate the eect of
ination. An uninformed observer who considers only the demand expressed in dollars
might conclude that the performing arts market had experienced a much greater increase
than it actually did. When we look at the change in demand in dollars without adjusting
for the change in price, we say that the measurement is done in current dollars. When we
calculate the change in demand while eliminating ination as a factor (that is, using the
same reference year), we say that the measurement is done in constant dollars. If volume
data are not available, every eort must be made to calculate changes in demand in constant
dollars to oset changes in price and get an accurate picture of the phenomenon.
While it is often more useful to express demand in volume terms, this gure is sometimes
hard to obtain, either because the data do not exist, or because the product in question is
made up of a series of disparate elements. For instance, demand in the leisure and recreation
market cannot be measured in volume terms because this category encompasses a number
of elements that cannot be added together: theatre seats, book purchases, travel, etc.

Company demand and market demand


A distinction is usually made between company demand and market demand. Company
demand is the expression, in volume or dollars, of the transactions carried out to buy a
product or service from a specic company. Given that market demand for a product is
made up of the sum of individual company demand values, total market demand may
Marketing Approach 11

experience a trend that is the inverse of the trend seen in individual company demand.
Demand for a product may be rising, while demand for some of its components may
be falling. For example, demand for cultural products declined 10% between 1997 and
2009, yet when we look at the sectors that make up this industry, demand for news­
papers plunged by 52% and demand for cinema slipped 10%, while demand for indoor
shows rose by 24% (ISQ, 2012a). It is interesting to note that the arrival of new infor­
mation and communications technology has transformed cultural consumption in
Québec. In fact, spending to access cultural products (such as video game consoles and
cellular telephone services) soared by 110% between 1997 and 2009 (ISQ, 2012b).
Sometimes several businesses or actors join forces to stimulate total market demand.
ey presume that it is possible to increase total demand and that each will benet in
proportion to its size in the market. For instance, milk producers encourage consumers
to drink more milk through ads that do not mention any brand in particular. Similarly,
the Québec government tells Americans about the advantages of a trip to the province
based on the assumption that increased tourism will benet the entire hotel industry.
In these cases, a presumption is made that if none of these businesses changes its mar­
keting mix, a campaign to increase market demand should increase each company’s
sales in proportion to its market share. A competitor’s action may sometimes also lead
to an increase in total market demand that benets all the competitors.

Market share
Every business tries to get part of the market to consume its product and thereby
capture part of the demand (see Example 1.1). In marketing, a company’s market
share refers not to the share of consumers who buy the company’s products, but to
the company’s share of demand. While it would be more accurate to talk about share
of demand rather than market share, market share is the expression used by marketing
specialists. We will also use it in this sense.

Example
1.1
PS4 versus Xbox One: which brand
won the console war?
November 2013 marked a new milestone in the videogame One month later, the PS4 had achieved the most massive
industry: two new consoles were launched only a few days console launch ever, with 2.1 million units sold worldwide,
apart: the Microsoft Xbox One and the Sony PS4. This is the experts report. Sony thus handily conquered the next-
eighth generation of consoles since the industry emerged generation console market with its PS4, which captured a
in the late 1970s. 50.7% market share in rst quarter 2015, versus 28% for
Microsoft Xbox One, according to VG Chartz.

Source : Pieters, C. (2013, December 12). PS4 : « Le plus grand lancement connu à ce jour » pour une console. Gameblog. Consulted at www.gameblog.fr/
news/40000-ps4-le-plus-grand-lancement-connu-a-ce-jour-pour-une-console; D'Angelo, W. (2016, July 21). PS4 vs Xbox One vs Wii U Global Lifetime Sales –
June 2016 Update – Sales. VGChartz. Consulted at www.vgchartz.com/article/265168/ps4-vs-xbox-one-vs-wii-u-global-lifetime-salesjune-2016-update/
12 Chapter 1

The different types of demand


ere are two main types of demand: actual demand and potential demand. Both
types of demand are measured for three time periods: past demand, present demand
and future demand, also called projected demand.
Actual demand Actual demand corresponds to a company’s actual sales or business
volume at a specic point in time. e same is true of market demand: it is a mea-
surement of demand at a specic point in time, either the current period or a previous
one. By measuring changes in previous years’ actual demand, a business can obtain a
historical picture of its vitality and the dynamism of its sector or industry.
Potential demand Potential demand is the maximum level that demand for a product
can reach in a given context. Not all consumers buy all the products available on the mar-
ket, even for generally consumed staple products. It is therefore very rare for a product
to reach 100% of consumers. People who do not use a product but who might do so are
potential consumers. To increase sales, producers try to persuade these potential consu-
mers to buy their products. Similarly, if a per capita increase in sales is possible among
existing customers, producers will try to convince their customers to consume more.
Demand projection However, every demand has a ceiling, and this ceiling depends
as much on consumers’ nancial means as on their tastes, interests, receptivity to a mar-
keting strategy and environment. e marketing managers’ task is then to estimate the
maximum level that market demand could reach at a given time, which is the potential
market demand. Potential company demand is estimated in the same way.
As in the case of actual demand, past or present potential demand for a product can
be determined, and potential demand can be projected.
Actual demand is usually less than potential demand, which gives businesses hope that
they can increase their sales or market share. When actual demand and potential demand
are equal in a given market, the market can be considered to have reached its saturation
level, which generally corresponds to the maturity stage in the product lifecycle.
e sales projections made by a business must take expected changes in potential
demand into account. When managers expect an increase in potential demand, they
can anticipate higher sales for their business. Conversely, when potential demand
declines in a market, competing rms must expect to make a greater eort to
maintain company demand.
e concept of the relationship between the dierent types of demand over time can
also be applied to the market. An actual market and a potential market can be dened,
and the past, present and future sizes of each of these markets can be estimated.
For example, consider the market represented by retirees for certain types of prod-
ucts, such as tourism. Because we know the number of retirees, say in the year 2000
(past market), we can estimate the number today (present market) and in 2025, when
the impact of the massive wave of retiring baby boomers will be felt (future market).
In the same way, we can nd out what the demand for travel among people in this
category was in 2000, estimate what it is now, and forecast what it will be in 2025.
Marketing Approach 13

We can do a similar analysis at every step in the distribution chain, from both the
producer’s and the retailer’s perspective. Figure 1.2 illustrates dierent relationships
in market demand.

Figure 1.2 Market demand relationships

1.3.3 The market and its components


A business can target one or several markets. In either case, it will try to capture
a share of demand in each market and will have to deal with competitors who are
trying to reach the same goal.
e market is made up of consumer units that may represent Market
an entire population or just part of it, depending on the product
A set of consumers, individuals or business-
oered or the target clientele. Companies rarely target an entire es that express wants and needs by buying
population: not all individuals are interested in all the products products, services or even ideas.
oered in the market, except perhaps for staple foods such as
milk, our and sugar.
When we talk about marketing, the tendency is to think only of the consumer mar-
ket, while there are in fact other markets for which marketing tools can be use-
ful. In this subsection, in addition to the consumer goods market, we will exam-
ine four other markets: the business market (for-prot and non-prot companies),
distribution intermediaries market, government market, and international markets.

The consumer goods market Consumer goods market


In 2014, the population of Canada was 35,543,658, divided into
approximately 9,831,316 families who spent $1,022,345,100 All the individuals who purchase products or
services to meet their personal needs.
that year (Statistics Canada, 2014). e consumer goods market
14 Chapter 1

(Business-to-Consumer or B2C) is thus a vast mar-


ket that oers enormous potential. One of Canada’s
most important characteristics for marketing strat-
egists is the size of the territory. Compared with
European countries or the United States, whose
populations are both large and concentrated, mar-
keting a product across Canada presents particular
problems in the area of distribution.
Eighty-one percent of the Canadian population is
urban (Statistics Canada, 2011) and lives in a strip
more than 6,000 km long and over 300 km wide.
The consumer goods market includes all individuals old enough to buy Certain metropolitan areas account for half of their
products. province’s inhabitants. In 2015, Vancouver had a
population of 2,504,300, or over 50.0% of the total population of British Columbia,
which was 4,683,100. In addition, most of the potential buyers of consumer goods
are concentrated in the two central provinces of Québec and Ontario, representing
22,055,700 people, or 61.5% of the population of Canada (Statistics Canada, 2014).
Most of this population can be found in an 800-km corridor that runs from Québec
City to Sault Ste. Marie.

The business market


Business market e business market, or Business-to-Business (B2B) market,
represents an important sector of today’s economy. e market
Organizations that buy products and services
in order to use them to make other goods, or to
addressed by B2B marketing does not include individual con-
meet their internal needs. They may be the in- sumers. e main types of rms in this sector of the economy
dustrial suppliers of a consumer goods manufac- include processing companies, farm producers, construction
turer, or any rm that sells to other businesses, industries, extraction industries and service companies.
municipalities or public organizations.
e marketing concepts used in the marketing of consumer
goods also apply to the industrial market. However, the relative weights of the vari-
ables in the marketing mix dier. To market consumer goods, the key elements in a
marketing plan are generally advertising, sales promotion and merchandising, while in
the case of an industrial market, more emphasis is placed on the product, price, sales
and after-sales service, given that sales are an essential point of contact between the
producer and the customer. is does not mean that advertising, sales promotion and
merchandising are absent from the industrial market; certain specialists in this type of
marketing have become experts in using promotional tools such as trade shows, movies,
merchandising, bonuses, sales oor display units and posters.

Distribution intermediaries market


Distribution intermediaries market e distribution intermediaries market buys products and
services with the intention of reselling them. e main types of
Individuals and organizations situated
between the producer and the consumer.
intermediaries are retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers’ agents
and dealers. Given that Canada has a relatively small population
spread out over a large area, intermediaries greatly facilitate product distribution.
Marketing Approach 15

Distribution intermediaries use marketing tools in the same way as specialists work-
ing for businesses in other sectors. Retailers apply the same marketing techniques as
manufacturers that deal directly with the end consumer. As the last intermediary in
the chain, the location of the retailer’s business is a key success factor, particularly
in the case of staple goods such as groceries. Consumers generally do not want to
travel great distances to buy a good that they do not view as having signicant mon-
etary or symbolic value, such as a litre of milk. e retailer with the best location in
the neighbourhood therefore has a guaranteed advantage.
For wholesalers, the marketing process is much more similar to the process used
by service companies, because they do not sell a tangible product but rather a sales
organization. ey provide a manufacturer with access to attractive markets through
a network of stores, and the owners of these stores with a reliable supply.
For all producers that do not sell their products directly to consumers, distribution
intermediaries are the market to penetrate. ey must convince the intermediaries
to adopt their products and need to provide them with all the necessary elements so
that they in turn can convince consumers to buy the products.

Government market
Federal, provincial and municipal governments—important partners in the economy—
make up a considerable market, even though they represent a limited number of
decision-makers (Business-to-Government or B2G). e government can become
the main customer of some of these businesses. To reach this market, the use of mar-
keting tools is more limited because governments mostly issue calls for tenders, a
process in which the contract usually goes to the lowest bidder. Price is therefore the
priority among the decision-making criteria, although other factors such as product
quality and customer service may also be taken into consideration.

International markets
Much of the Canadian economy’s vitality comes from exporting products, particu-
larly to the United States. Governments are encouraging businesses to look abroad
to nd new markets and thereby counterbalance the ood of products invading the
Canadian market (see Example 1.2, on the following page). International marketing
is thus an important eld of study. Yet marketing between countries can be a complex
task because culture, government regulations and technical standards may dier
greatly from one country to another.

1.3.4 Exchange
All denitions of marketing have one thing in common: the concept of exchange.
is concept rests on four elements:
• the customer’s need,
• the satisfaction of this need,
• a relationship between the business and the consumer,
• and the optimization of business prots.
16 Chapter 1

Example
1.2
A home run for the Cirque
In 2015, the Cirque du Soleil was sold to a consortium $1.5 billion. “I hit a home run,” the Cirque du Soleil
led by the American private investment rm IPG Capital. cofounder says. “I could not ask for a better future for
The rm acquired 60% of the equity of the circus. the Cirque.”
The Chinese investment rm Fosun Capital Group holds
20% of the stock, the Caisse de dépôt et placement One of the conditions of sale was that the head ofce
du Québec owns 10%, and cofounder Guy Laliberté stay in Montréal, and that it “remain the centre of
kept 10%. creative and artistic services.” The new owners are
also committed to “ensuring an important presence
The controlling shareholder, which has plans to expand of Québec and Canada within the management team
beyond circus shows, and Fosun Capital Group, which of the Cirque and its Board of Directors.” They have
aims to springboard the Cirque du Soleil into the also agreed to nance local cultural and community
Chinese market, handed Guy Laliberté a cheque for over organizations.

Source: Brousseau-Pouliot, V. (2015). La meilleure décision pour l’avenir du Cirque. La Presse. Consulted at http://affaires.lapresse.ca/economie/
quebec/201504/20/01-4862536-la-meilleure-decision-pour-lavenir-du-cirque.php

It is important to make the distinction between maximizing prot and opti-


mizing prot. Maximizing aims to generate the largest possible prot, while
optimizing seeks to obtain the largest prot while taking into consideration
The goal of marketing is to optimize the relation­
organizational or environmental elements such as employees’
ship of exchange between the business and the
well-being, creating a good corporate image, satisfying the
customer and to maximize their satisfaction.
consumer, the company’s commitment to the community, and
environmental protection.

Transactions
An exchange is usually concluded with a transaction (contract or agreement that
species the accepted terms), which constitutes a basic unit. e business chooses
its payment and nancing modes according to industry practices or the types of
relationships it wishes to develop with its customers.

The customer relationship


is exchange relationship can take dierent forms depending on the products, ser-
vices and environment of the rm. e objective is to create important economic
Customer service and social ties on an ongoing basis while providing superior
value. Customer service is closely related to customer satisfac-
Everything that customers experience when tion and customer loyalty, which have become very important
doing business with a company.
in the past 20 years.
Customer service concerns a company’s relationship with its customers. It con-
sists of everything that customers experience when doing business with a company.
Marketing Approach 17

Managing customer service means managing all these experiences and customers’
expectations. Customer service goes beyond the marketing department to encompass
other departments that help forge customers’ experiences in their relationship with a
company.
Customer service involves a customer approach, that is, the analysis and understand-
ing of the expectations, wants, needs and behaviours of target customers, as well as the
design and implementation of actions, policies and programs intended to best satisfy
customers in a cost-eective way and thus build customer loyalty. However, a cus-
tomer approach is not limited to satisfying customer wants. It also means innovating
to go beyond the needs and expectations explicitly formulated by customers.
First and foremost, customer service concerns a company’s existing customers;
its primary function is to satisfy them and build their loyalty. It also concerns
prospective customers obtained through word of mouth by existing customers.
e concept of a customer includes users and deciders, buyers, gatekeepers, initiators,
inuencers and speciers, as well as immediate, intermediate and end customers. It
also includes a company’s partners, associates, allies and distributors.
In many markets, customer service has become an indispensable tool that enables a
company to stand out advantageously from its competitors and improve customer
retention. e growing importance of customer service reects the trend in contem-
porary marketing thinking that emphasizes building and strengthening customer
relationships. In contrast, traditional marketing dealt more with customer transactions
and considered its job done once a purchase had been made.
Managing this relationship implies building and maintaining protable relations,
providing superior value and ensuring a high degree of satisfaction. In fact, there are
very few new customers, only those of the competition.

Customer lifetime value


To assess the protability of its customers, a business has to look Customer lifetime value
beyond the current situation because some customers that
The sum total of the present values of all the
are not protable at present may become so in the short or prots that can be made from a particular
medium term; enough to compensate for the current non- customer over that person’s lifetime.
protability. is is why many businesses use the concept of
customer lifetime value.
To calculate this value, the prots generated by the customer year after year are con-
sidered, taking into account the fact that $1 of prot in ve years is not worth the
same as $1 of prot in the current year. e present value of the prots generated
each year is thus calculated.
Customer lifetime value represents the value of all the purchases the customer may
make over his or her lifetime. It proves that it is more protable for a business to
take care of its customers than to seek out new ones. Some businesses think that it
costs ve times as much to attract new customers as to retain their existing ones.
18 Chapter 1

eoretically, by applying this concept, the lifetime value of a potential customer, an


existing customer, a customer at risk or a lost customer can be calculated to better
assess how much can be invested to acquire, retain, save or win back the customer.
is method requires the use of an accounting system that is accurate enough to
compute the costs of each of the dierent products or services sold and of each of
the various customer segments.
It also requires an analysis of a set of data contained in the customer databases
(sometimes obtained through marketing research). By using the data collected on a
customer’s personal characteristics and past behaviour, future behaviour can be pre-
dicted if the customer becomes or remains a company customer, or is won back again.

1.3.5 The result of the exchange process


Delivering products or services of value and high quality will satisfy customers, and
consequently greatly inuence their future purchasing behaviours. e more satised
the customers, the more loyal they will tend to be.

Value
Value e notion of value is important for consumers; they want
to emerge a winner from the exchange process. It is therefore
The benets received minus the monetary and
non-monetary costs.
important for the business to clearly understand what its cus-
tomers expect in terms of value, on the functional, economic,
social and experiential levels.
Consumers hope to nd added value in the benets they seek. e business must
be aware of these benets and should make them a priority. It must also be able to
attribute a monetary value to each of these benets and to set the suggested retail price.
Often, consumers must deprive themselves of some things to obtain others.
Businesses need to be aware of their customers’ monetary sacrices along with non-
monetary costs such as psychological fatigue, eort and time. e production cost
should include sales and operations expenses. A good exchange process should
achieve a satisfactory result for both the consumer and the marketing manager.

Quality
Consumers also care about the quality of the product or service they procure. ey
expect it to be defect-free, meet the specications and deliver superior, constant and
reliable performance.

Satisfaction
Satisfaction is situated between the customers’ expectations and their perception of
performance (see the denition on page 200). Why worry about customer satisfaction?
First of all, it is a matter of professionalism and business ethics. Satised consum-
ers are also more loyal than dissatised ones, and loyal customers are more protable
because they tend to incur lower costs and generate higher sales per customer. It is
Marketing Approach 19

also easier and cheaper (hence more protable) to retain customers than to replace
them with new ones. As a result, if a company manages to improve customer satisfac-
tion levels (or to maintain them if they are already very high), there will be a positive
impact on customer loyalty and protability.

Loyalty
When we discuss consumer loyalty or disloyalty we assume that consumers are either
completely loyal or completely disloyal, to simplify the presentation. In reality, how-
ever, there is no dichotomy between the concepts of loyalty and disloyalty; instead,
we should talk about the degree of customer loyalty to a brand or company.
A number of authors have written about the concept of loyalty and proposed de-
nitions, including Richard L. Oliver in 1999. We are not referring to the “romantic”
denition of loyalty (i.e., delity, which represents the moral concept of loyalty),
where customers who are loyal to a brand or company display great emotional
attachment to it, because this denition does not t all buying sectors, even if this
concept is a type of ideal to be attained by a brand or company.
e behavioural denition of loyalty, which includes customer retention and cus-
tomer share, is the preferred denition because it is practical and reects marketing
practitioners’ concept of loyalty.
e rst aspect of loyalty is the length of customer retention, or how long the cus-
tomer has been dealing with the same business or buying the same brand: the longer
that time period, the more loyal the customer.
e retention rate from one period to another is a helpful indicator of a company’s
success with its customers. A company that keeps 80% of its customers from the pre-
vious year has only 33% of its rst-year customer base at the end of ve years if it has
not won back any of its lost customers. A company that retains 50% of its customer
base keeps as little as 3% of its rst-year customers after ve years.
e second aspect of loyalty is less obvious, but it is just as important as the length of
retention. It concerns the customer share, or the proportion of a customer’s relevant
purchases from a company or of a brand. Building customer loyalty means not only
retaining customers from one period to the next, but also maintaining or increasing
the customer share of the brand or company.
For less frequently purchased products or services (such as cars), customer loyalty can
be estimated by asking customers whether they intend to buy again from the same
supplier instead of waiting for them to do so. For products or services purchased very
rarely or just once, or only in an emergency or as needed, the concepts of retention
and customer share are not as relevant because customers will probably not buy the
same product or service a second time. If they do, it might only be in 15 or 20 years.
In these cases, a good way to estimate loyalty is to nd out if customers intend to
recommend the brand or business to other people (“Would you recommend this
company or this brand to your friends and acquaintances or your coworkers or asso-
ciates?”), or whether they would choose to buy the product again (“If you had to do
20 Chapter 1

it again, would you buy the same brand?”). is also applies to categories of goods
and services like tourist destinations, wine, or gourmet restaurants, where variety and
novelty are among the benets associated with this category.
Figure 1.3 shows the positive nancial impact of customer loyalty on a company over
a period of several years. e researchers Reichheld and Sasser (1990) observed this
phenomenon in a number of industries. Every new customer comes with an acqui-
sition cost. is same customer will generate a base prot for the company. If the
customer stays and continues to make purchases, the acquisition cost will not recur,
and prots will accumulate. Customer satisfaction will generate growth in revenues,
and if the company gets to know this customer better, it will help reduce costs. is
customer will also provide free publicity for the company (through word of mouth).
Satised customers are also less price-sensitive.

Figure 1.3 The nancial impact of customer loyalty

Source: Adapted from Reichheld, F. F. and Sasser, W. E. Jr. (1990, September–October). Zero defections: Quality comes to services.
Harvard Business Review. Consulted at https://hbr.org/1990/09/zero-defections-quality-comes-to-services

e positive connection between customer loyalty and corporate protability is


irrefutable.
Yet some question the link between satisfaction and loyalty, insisting that a satis-
ed customer is not necessarily loyal, and that a loyal customer is not necessarily
satised. It is also true that the positive relationship between satisfaction and loy-
alty assumes that customers can choose their suppliers, which implies that there is
competition. Customers of a monopoly will be loyal, even if they are dissatised. It
is equally true that some dissatised customers will remain loyal simply because they
have been attached to the company for some time and they think that a change in
Marketing Approach 21

supplier would be too costly or more costly than their current dissatisfaction. ey
might also think the competition would not be any more satisfactory. Customers’
perceptions of competitors also aect their loyalty. Satised customers may stray if
they believe that one of the company’s competitors could do a better job of satisfying
them. Conversely, dissatised customers of a company may remain loyal if they think
that the company performs better than or as well as its competitors.
Nonetheless, an indisputable link exists between satisfaction and loyalty: the more
satised customers are, the more loyal they are. is link is not simple, automatic or
linear, but it does exist. e marketing manager of an auto manufacturer explained
that, according to data collected over many years, a completely satised customer is,
on average, three times more loyal than a very satised customer. Xerox gures that
its very satised customers are six times more likely to buy Xerox equipment again
than ones that are merely satised ( Jones and Sasser, 1995).
Some studies emphasize the existing link between satisfaction and protability.
After analyzing the Prot Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS) database, Andreas
Eggert and Wolfgang Ulaga (2002) discovered that companies with customers who
are more satised than those of their competitors have notably higher protability.
What’s more, companies that increase their customers’ satisfaction more quickly than
their competitors also grow their market shares and boost their protability.
Since the 1990s, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has been meas-
uring the satisfaction of American consumers with almost all major corporations on
consumer markets. A statistical study of developments in satisfaction with each of
these companies and trends in their listed stock prices shows a strong relationship
between the two variables: for all these companies, a 1% increase in average customer
satisfaction results in a 3% increase in the corporate stock price, on average (Fornell,
2001). is seems logical because higher satisfaction leads to greater loyalty, which
in turn results in higher protability, and the stock price is supposed to reect the
present value of all the prots the company will earn in the future.
Businesses must therefore strike a balance between levels of satisfaction and cost.
Satised customers will be less price-sensitive, will create positive word-of-mouth
and will remain loyal for longer.
Satisfaction is a cornerstone of loyalty. Small changes can prompt customers to stray,
or can satisfy them completely. Given the very strong inuence of satisfaction on loy-
alty, businesses can capture a greater share of customers’ spending if their customers
are satised (see the section on customer lifetime value, on page 17).

1.4 Understanding the integrated


marketing model
To better understand the marketing approach along with its many concepts and
components, we propose an integrated marketing model. e ow chart (see page 4)
22 Chapter 1

shows that marketing is central to the relationship between the organization and the
market, and that it acts on both of these elements.
Businesses perform analysis (see Chapters 5 and 6) to better understand the market
along with the opportunities and value that it oers. Analysis helps businesses grasp
the needs of current and potential customers and determine the value the business
can oer them. It also allows businesses to monitor the evolution of their programs
and continue to serve their customers well while tracking changes in the environ-
ment. Chapter 7, dealing with consumer behaviour, describes the factors that inu-
ence consumers’ purchasing decisions. Chapter 1 has provided an overview of the
dierent types of markets.
Marketing activity includes developing the marketing strategy of the business
(see Chapter 3), which dictates its decisions related to segmentation, targeting, posi-
tioning and dierentiation. At this step, the company determines how it can cre-
ate value. Once these decisions are made, marketing managers put in place value
production, namely a set of tactics known as the marketing mix: products, services
and brands (see Chapter 8), marketing communications (see Chapter 9), sales
(see Chapter 10), distribution (see Chapter 11) and price (see Chapter 12).
Creativity and innovation are integral parts of the marketing process (see Chapter 4).
Innovation is possible at each step, from product and service creation to process
development. Similarly, at each step of the process, creation of value for the business
and for the customer must remain central to the orientation.
Marketing success depends on having the right dose (optimal proportions) of the
elements of the marketing mix: product, price, promotion, and place (distribution).
We add to this traditional vision of the marketing mix elements by explicitly inte-
grating the sale into the business strategy. A product that has a good distribution
network and good promotion strategy will not be a success if the consumer does not
want it, even at a good price. e same is true for a good product with good customer
service, but oered at the wrong price or with a faulty distribution system resulting
from a awed promotion strategy. In fact, there are many more new products trying
to nd a place on the market each year than products that are successfully launched.
ese components are therefore fundamental to marketing; it is important to strive
for synergy by combining them eectively. Synergy occurs when the total eect of
several elements combined is greater than the sum of the elements taken individually.
Although the elements of the marketing mix form a whole, they generally follow
a logical sequence. Managers must rst know what product they are going to sell
before they can determine the price, decide on distribution or assemble its sales
force. Similarly, they cannot design a communication campaign without knowing
what the business oers, at what price, where the product will be sold and the type
of service provided. To start with, their decisions are made in a predetermined order.
An iterative process is then used to achieve the right amounts of each element; they
are adjusted until the nal combination is reached.
Marketing Approach 23

e elements of the marketing mix are considered controllable variables, as opposed


to macro-environment variables, over which the organization has no control. In
contrast, competition is a semi-controllable variable.
e product is the central element on which the business depends. Consumers iden-
tify the rm with this element, which they consume. In this book, we use the term
“product” (see the denition on page 7) in its broadest sense to designate a tangible
object, service, idea or cause.
Every product has a price. e price is usually expressed as the monetary value
attributed to the product, but it also includes the eort consumers have to make
when buying it. ere is always a price to be paid for a product, even a free one
(the risk of disappointment, the time spent to acquire it, etc.). In addition, the
price paid for a product is not necessarily proportionate to the cost of manufac-
turing it, or to the value attached to it. e cost of a movie ticket has nothing
to do with the cost of making the movie. Conversely, the rarity, reputation and
symbolic value of an object are factors likely to increase the price the consumer is
willing to pay for it. A work of art or a vintage car may be sold at a very high price
that, once again, has nothing to do with the cost of manufacturing it. e fairest
price is therefore the one the consumer is willing to pay, and the business will
base the development of its strategies on this price. A good promotion strategy
can increase the value associated with a product. However, marketing managers
must also make other decisions, relating to payment conditions and credit policies,
for example.
e element of place (or distribution) is divided into a number of components, the
main three of which are physical distribution, distribution networks and the place of
business (where the product is sold). Physical distribution has to do with the logistics
of distributing the product from the manufacturer to the end consumer. Distribution
networks (channels) are characterized by the relationship between the various inter-
mediaries. Place is an important success factor for businesses that sell directly to
consumers. e location of a bookstore, supermarket, service station or restaurant
must be chosen with care.
As mentioned earlier, customer service has become an important element of any
marketing strategy. In today’s business environment, where consumers perceive many
products as being equivalent to one another, the quality of customer service becomes
a decisive factor in choosing a product.
Promotion comes last when dening the marketing mix: before designing a com-
munication campaign, one must identify the product that is being oered, its price
and the place where consumers can buy it. Similarly, the business must rst know its
target consumers’ basic characteristics and, in particular, which arguments will win
them over. At this step, the business also decides on the type and intensity of the
sales eort it will deploy.
24 Chapter 1

1.5 The internal marketing management


process
Marketing strategies adopted must always be consistent with the company’s mission
and objectives. ey must also take its human, technical and nancial resources into
account.
e marketing management process can be broken down into four main elements:
analysis, planning, implementation and control.
Marketers analyze the market situation rst, and then the objectives and resources
of the rm. e results of this analysis will enable them to make a marketing plan by
determining which marketing objectives are compatible with the company’s actual
situation. e marketers then look at the strategic aspects of the process: brand or
product positioning, expected reactions from the competition and the selection of
the most appropriate distribution network. ese strategic aspects are based on three
key marketing concepts: segmentation, positioning and targeting. ese concepts
underpin the dierentiation of the company’s products on a given market compared
with those of its competitors. ese concepts will be covered in depth in the follow-
ing chapters. e strategic aspects must all connect with operational elements, which
include sales sta meetings, advertising material put in the right place at the right
time, and an adequate supply of products. Because a single error can derail a good
marketing idea, every element is important.
Implementation of a marketing plan requires proper coordination of everyone
involved, and each sector has its role to play: production, so that sucient quantities
of the products are available; nance, so that funds are freed up; personnel, because
additional sta may need to be hired; and IT, so that hardware is up to the task
and powerful enough to support the strategy. While determining the optimal pro-
portions of the four elements of the marketing mix is a manager’s main activity at
this stage of the marketing management process, the task does not end there. When
the strategy is implemented, company executives must be informed of the success or
failure of the operation via the marketing information system (MIS). is control
method allows the rm to compare its results with its objectives and to deal with any
discrepancies by taking the necessary corrective action.
Marketing specialists must know their market and the variables likely to aect it.
ey must correctly determine consumers’ needs, measure the level of and changes in
demand for a specic good and divide up the overall market into submarkets, or seg-
ments, in order to seize business opportunities and gain a distinctive advantage over
their competitors. ey must also study and weigh the dierent macro-environment
variables. Competition in all its forms can aect sales; changes in demographics, cul-
ture, the economy, laws and regulations as well as technology and the international
context all constantly aect the rules of the game, beyond marketers’ control. Finally,
marketers must use their information system eectively and know how to balance
each variable in the marketing mix.
Marketing Approach 25

1.6 The future of marketing


To predict the future of the marketing discipline, it is crucial to be familiar with
some of the background behind the development of this science. One must also
understand the major impact of globalization on trade, and the inuence of tech-
nologies on consumers, in terms of both communication and purchasing behaviours.

1.6.1 The development of trade


e science of modern marketing took shape in conjunction with the rise in the
material well-being of industrialized nations and is thus connected with the
development of trade.
In the 19th century, supply created demand. At that time, consumers did not have
large incomes and manufacturers had a hard time meeting the primary needs of
the population. e distribution chain of goods was made up of a number of small
manufacturers at one end and a number of small retailers at the other. Wholesalers
and other agents made up the links of the chain and were the physical connection
between the two parties. It was a seller’s market rather than a buyer’s market.
Industrialization changed these conditions considerably. At the beginning of the
20th century, lower manufacturing costs resulting from assembly line produc-
tion led to growth in manufacturing companies and stores, along with a concen-
tration of businesses in certain industries. Competition intensied, both locally and
on an international scale. At the same time, the cost of making a product was no
longer considered the main determinant of its price. Producers quickly understood
that consumers, with their increased buying power, wanted products that satised
not only their needs, but also their tastes and wants, and as a result were no longer
motivated solely by the low price of a good.
It was around 1910 that the term marketing came into general use to signify some-
thing other than distribution or trade (Bartels, 1976). en, with the rst mar-
ket studies in 1920 came the use of advertising to win customer loyalty and house
brands. e spectacular growth of the economy after World War II ushered in the
creation of suburbs and shopping centres.
In the 1950s, there was a shift from product orientation and sales orientation toward
a marketing orientation. ese were the rst steps toward modern marketing.
Rather than consisting of the application of a set of rules and principles, market-
ing then became the management of a function, with marketing management being
considered a process of analysis, planning and action.
To get to know their customers better, marketing specialists drew on the social
sciences, including psychology and sociology. ey were increasingly interested in
buyers’ individual and collective behaviours. is complex eld of study led, in the
1960s, to the processing of massive amounts of data and the use of recent advances
in quantitative methods and information technology. Marketing was originally
26 Chapter 1

developed from applications of economic theory, yet it was subsequently enriched


by contributions from other sciences, which it appropriated to form its own eld
of study.
In the 1970s, marketing went from being fairly general and standardized to being
specialized. e science reached a stage where specialists studied its application in
specic sectors of the economy: small and medium-sized enterprises, hospitals, ser-
vices, non-prot organizations, arts and culture, and the industrial sector. e con-
cept of marketing thus found new applications in marketing people, ideas, political
entities, social causes and institutions. is led to the development of international
marketing.
e 1990s were characterized by the explosion in Internet communications and
the beginning of e-commerce. Today, e-commerce is vigorous and protable in the
consumer and Business-to-Business markets.
Lastly, society has become more demanding of businesses. It wants busi-
nesses to operate ethically and monitor their activities in a way that minimizes
environmental impacts. All in all, citizens want businesses to do well, of course,
but they also want businesses to be concerned about maintaining or improving the
general welfare of society (see Example 1.3 ). In some cases, this can go as far as
demarketing. For instance, since 2004, the government corporation Hydro-Québec
has been trying to encourage consumers to reduce their use of electricity, publish-
ing advertisements centred on being Energy Wise, with premiums for households
that buy energy-ecient appliances. Similarly, when Mountain Equipment Co-op
builds new stores, it is careful to follow the four
Rs of construction:
• Reduce: Avoid using unnecessary
materials.
• Reuse: Integrate existing materials.
• Recycle: Use existing materials in a
dierent way.
• Rethink: Find new, more eco-friendly
building solutions.
ese guiding principles have also been used in the
Québec manufacturers are becoming more eco-responsible. renovation of HEC Montréal’s Decelles building.

1.6.2 The effect of globalized competition


e globalization of competition has opened the world to consumers. It has led to
the exporting of certain Canadian products and the importing of products from
foreign countries. ese products represent additional competition for Canadian
products. Because the potential market in Québec and Canada is already limited
by a relatively small number of consumers, many businesses have to look abroad to
increase their sales or the lifespan of their products.
Marketing Approach 27

Example
1.3
Sweden: eco-responsibility pays off
The Québec government is drafting legislation that of eco-responsible products. In environmental terms,
will make many manufacturers responsible for their Québec could learn a lot from the Swedish model of
products until the end of the product’s useful life. In social responsibility.
Sweden, this has been the norm for the past 15 years,
and the economy is doing very well, as Commerce The Swedish economy has not stalled since the
magazine notes. conservative government made producers accountable.
On the contrary, Sweden’s growth (5.5%) is almost twice
Sony Ericsson will soon launch the rst biodegradable the average of the European Union, and has been for more
cell phone, the GreenHeart. Ericsson telephones, than 10 years. Not only has the shift to eco-responsibility
Electrolux washing machines and Volvo engines are the not harmed the economy, it has gained a broad base
manufacturers’ responsibility from the moment they of support. The heavyweights of the business world—
are made until they are destroyed, which explains why notably IKEA, Electrolux, Ericsson and Volvo—are strong
Swedish businesses are world leaders in the creation advocates of the regulations the government put in place.

Source: Adapted from Rochon, F. (2008). Suède : écoresponsable et prospère. Les Affaires. Consulted at www.lesaffaires.com/secteurs-d-activite/aeronau-
tique-etaerospatiale/suetegravede--eteacutecoresponsable-et-prospetegravere/485528

When the concept of a market is expanded to take in the whole world, the concept
of competition is inevitably expanded as well. Today’s businesses face competi-
tion that is much more formidable than that arising from their local or national
counterparts exclusively.

1.6.3 The consequences of technical advancement


All industries are subject to the inuence of technology to some degree. In sectors
like the audiovisual sector, there is constant pressure due to the steady inux of inno-
vations on the market. Ever since people have been able to download movies and
music, conventional broadcasters have had to ght and innovate in order to survive
this competition. However, some sectors are less aected by technological develop-
ment. Craftspeople, for instance, often use very old methods that a new technology
could not replace without completely changing the product.
Technological changes aect all business sectors, including communications, and,
in the case of online retail, distribution. e iPod, iPad and iPhone are examples
of technical advancements that have combined several functions in a single device:
television, Internet, email, etc.
28 Chapter 1

Summary

Marketing is a set of activities that aim to bring busi- business that provided this product. The integrated
nesses closer to customers so that they can better marketing model states that marketing is central to the
meet their needs. Several orientations have shaped the relationship between the organization and the market.
development of the discipline: the production orienta- The model demonstrates the importance of marketing
tion, which centres on greater demand than supply, the research both upstream and downstream of the organ-
product orientation, in which product development is a ization’s activities. It also conrms that careful analysis
primary concern of businesses, and the sales orienta- can help businesses optimize their marketing mix,
tion, which mainly focuses on facilitating transactions. consisting of product, price, place and promotion.
Modern marketing has developed a customer orienta-
The marketing management process includes four main
tion that emphasizes customer value along with real
elements: analysis, planning, implementation and con-
and perceived benets.
trol. The marketing strategy is central to the activities of
The marketing function strives to determine the prod- the manager and inuences all marketing tactics.
ucts that customers want, and tries to sell these prod-
Marketing has evolved considerably over the years, from
ucts to them, yet it is also important to distinguish
its origins in economic theory. It is also rooted in psy-
between wants and needs. A need corresponds to a
chology, sociology and quantitative methods. Modern
lack, whereas a want corresponds to a way to ll this
marketing is made up of a body of knowledge that dis-
need. A want will transform into demand if there is a
tinguishes it from other disciplines. The future of mar-
corresponding supply on the market. The result is an
keting hinges on globalization and technology that
exchange that concludes with a transaction. The satis-
affect consumers’ buying habits.
faction that customers feel when they nd value added
in a high quality product will build their loyalty to the

Suggested readings

Textbooks Kotler, P. T., Armstrong, G., Trifts, V. & Websites


Bonoma, T. V. & Kosnik, T. J. (July 13, Cunningham, P. H. (2013). Principles of American Marketing Association (AMA):
1989). What is marketing? Harvard marketing. Toronto, Ontario : Pearson. www.ama.org
Business Review. Levitt, T. (July 1, 2004). Marketing
myopia. Harvard Business Review.
Marketing Process 29

Chapter
2
Marketing Process

Chapter outline
2.1 How marketing contributes to a company’s mission
2.2 Business strategies
2.3 Marketing planning
2.4 Control
2.5 Organizational structure
2.6 Ethics in marketing

Learning objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
explain how marketing contributes to a company’s mission;
describe the strategic marketing process;
distinguish various marketing strategies;
dene the contents of a marketing plan;
recognize the importance of marketing control within a company;
grasp the role and importance of ethics in marketing.
30 Chapter 2

Throughout this book, all of the elements that we look at


are integrated in a process that leads to the attainment of a company’s objec-
tives, known as the “planning and control cycle.” Planning and control are closely
related and complementary. For the control cycle to take place, companies must
have set measurable objectives. Managers can evaluate the eectiveness of their
activities by comparing the results obtained with these objectives. Planning there-
fore consists of dening the end point, while control helps guide the process and
indicate the extent to which objectives have been achieved. Control also helps
managers plan by indicating the kinds of eorts that will be required to attain
desired results.
In this chapter we focus on the various components of the planning and control
cycle in marketing. First we dene how marketing contributes to a company’s
overall eort. We will also see that marketing plans are based on companies’ over-
all strategies and objectives. e marketing strategies dened should contribute to
the success of these business strategies. In addition, we will study the marketing
planning process, which is built around a marketing plan. en we present the
main components of the control function of marketing activities. In addition, we
describe various types of organizational structures related to company size, prod-
uct mix and market scope. In conclusion, we present a few concepts in the ethics
domain that all marketing managers should consider.

Flow chart
Marketing Process 31

2.1 How marketing contributes to a


company’s mission
To fulll its mission, a company distributes tasks and powers among various func-
tions or organizational units, each of which makes a distinct contribution to the
company’s overall mission. e marketing function thus contributes in a particu-
lar way to attaining the company’s growth, sales, protability and general eec-
tiveness objectives. e responsibilities of this unit dier from those given to the
nance function or the production and operations management function, even if all
these functions share the same overall objectives. e principle of synergy must also
apply to each business function: the combined eect of the eorts made by the dif-
ferent units of an organization should produce a greater eect than the sum of each
individual eort.
e marketing function must be linked to the company’s mission before the con-
cepts of marketing planning and control are even considered. e company mission
generates a series of general and specic objectives that form the basis of general and
specic strategies, including marketing objectives and strategies. In all management
planning, a hierarchy of objectives corresponding to a hierarchy of strategies must be
dened (see Figure 2.1 on the following page).
Marketing must dene its particular objectives based on the company’s overall
objectives. e overall marketing objective will then translate into a series of spe-
cic objectives connected with each of the marketing mix variables—price, prod-
uct, place and promotion—and with their associated activities. Similarly, based
on its own objectives, the company will determine the strategies that the market-
ing strategy will support. In turn, the marketing strategy will be supported by the
strategies for the marketing mix variables. Naturally, the company’s overall plan-
ning will include the plans for each of its units. Marketing planning should there-
fore be considered within the context of the company’s overall plan. Further, each
of the elements of the marketing mix must create a synergy eect if the business is
to succeed.
e objectives of a business, and those of each of its functions, may have a short-,
medium- or long-term horizon. Each company denes what these horizons
imply. For example, a short term may equal six months for one company and
one year for another, and a long term may be two years in a fast-evolving tech-
nology sector and ve years in a sector where radical change occurs over a longer
time span.
32 Chapter 2

Figure 2.1 Hierarchy of business objectives and strategies

2.2 Business strategies


A strategy is dierent from a tactic because it follows an overall vision of the means
used to achieve a nal objective (for example, gaining a certain market share by
setting the lowest price possible), whereas a tactic is a temporary adjustment of an
element of the strategy at a given time (for example, inserting rebate coupons in a
magazine). Without changing their initial business strategy, managers can use several
tactics to achieve the intended results of the strategy.
As mentioned, a company will have a hierarchy of strategies, ranging from an overall
strategy to a marketing strategy, strategies for marketing mix variables and so on. e
company’s overall strategy and marketing strategy may overlap considerably and be
dicult to tell apart. In fact, the company’s strategy is often based on the marketing
mix variables. In addition, business strategy is sometimes confused with marketing
strategy. A marketing strategy is often dened according to one variable of the mar-
keting mix. is is logical because to survive, a business must sell: without customers
there can be no business.
In this section, we will examine the types of business strategies that inuence
marketing strategies. Chapter 3 covers marketing strategy and its four components:
segmentation, targeting, positioning and dierentiation.
Marketing Process 33

2.2.1 Types of business strategies


Companies must develop an approach that takes into account the balance of power
between themselves and other businesses in the same sector. is power relationship
stems from a company’s size compared to that of its rivals and its relative competi-
tive advantage. is type of advantage may be linked to the company’s characteristics
(cost advantage, for example), the characteristics customers perceive as being
unique to its product, or any other element that gives the rm an advantage over its
competitors.
is power relationship will determine a company’s competitive and development
strategies. Without changing their initial strategy, managers can draw on dierent
tactics to achieve the intended results of the strategy. Below we present two types of
business strategies: competitive strategies and development strategies.

Competitive strategies
ere are four main types of competitive strategies: leader, challenger, follower and
specialist (or nicher).
Leader strategies A leader is often a point of reference that Leader
rival companies strive to attack, imitate or avoid. erefore,
A company that occupies a dominant posi-
the leader is the one that sets the pace of the market; it is tion in a given market and that is recognized
watched constantly by all competing companies. e market as a leader by its competitors.
leader’s freedom to choose its strategies is commensurate with
the strength of its competitive position and market dominance
(company size, market share, cost advantage, etc.).
Challenger strategies A challenger openly uses oensive strate- Challenger
gies intended to make it the market leader. On one hand, it can try
A company that is considered the main rival
to confront the leader directly by using the leader’s own methods of the leader; it seeks a dominant position.
without attempting to take advantage of its weaknesses. For exam-
ple, it may lead a sustained, aggressive advertising campaign, develop an improved prod-
uct or oer very competitive pricing. A challenger must often deploy much more eort
than the leader to reach its objectives. On the other hand, it could attempt to gain rst
place by taking advantage of the dominating company’s weaknesses. For instance, a chal-
lenger may try to inltrate the leader’s poorly developed network by oering the same
product at a more attractive price, delivering better service, penetrating a region or a seg-
ment that is only partially covered by the leader or using aggressive communication to
increase its market share. Obviously, before embarking on this type of venture, it must try
to predict and assess the leader’s potential reactions. Reebok is a good example of a chal-
lenger in sports brands (see Example 2.1, on the following page).
Follower strategies Rather than trying to take rst place, a Follower
follower develops strategies aimed primarily at retaining its mar-
A competitor with a small market share that
ket share instead of attempting to increase it considerably. ese adapts its actions to its competitors.
strategies are used mainly in oligopolistic markets comprising
few companies, none of which would benet from upsetting the established order.
34 Chapter 2

Example
2.1
Reebok becomes a challenger
In 1994, Reebok was the world leader in sports brands. basketball shoes soared from 35% in 2005 to 60% in
Fiercely rivalled by Nike and Adidas, the brand sustained 2014, while Adidas’s share dipped from 10% to 6% during
a global decline in 2002; its name had simply aged along the same period. By comparison, the market share of the
with its customers. Reebok brand plummeted from 8% to 1.8% in less than
10 years (Farrell, 2014).
In late 2005, Reebok was acquired by Adidas, which aimed
to capture market share in North America and thus reduce To orchestrate a turnaround, Reebok launched the Be More
the gap with its main American competitor, Nike. Human campaign in 2015, which focuses on the tness
market. With its commitment to developing cross t and
The union was certainly no game-changer. According to strategic partnerships with events like the Spartan race, the
the Wall Street Journal, Nike’s market share on sales of future of the brand looks promising.

Source: Gianatsio, D. (2015). Reebok is quietly emerging as a challenger brand to contend with–Athletic company is leveraging “ tough tness” movement to
boost sales. Adweek. Consulted at www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/reebok-quietly-emerging-challenger-brand-contend-163074

is type of strategy should not be confused with a lax or laissez-faire approach.
A follower takes its competitors’ actions into account and adjusts accordingly. ese
active strategies are thus based on market realities and depend on the actions of each
company operating in the market. For example, Cirque du Soleil has spawned sev-
eral imitators, which now try to stand out from the leader by introducing dierent
products. Similarly, as soon as a pop group is successful, various imitators appear
on the music scene. In the consumer goods market, several rms have successfully
imitated Montblanc pens, thus oering consumers the illusion of writing with a
prestige symbol.
Market specialist Specialist (or nicher) strategies A market specialist
focuses on a relatively distinctive market segment. erefore
A company that focuses on a distinctive
market segment.
its strategies are developed to seek a niche that distinguishes
the company from its competitors and then focus exclusively
on that niche.
is specialization may result from the originality of the company’s product, the use
of a single technique, an eective production capacity allowing a relatively low cost
price or any other distinct advantage. is strategy is well suited to small businesses
that need to compete with well-established giants. However, big companies can also
successfully apply niche strategies, by developing very specialized products for a specic
segment, for example. Often, the segment is too small to be protable because of the
organization’s xed costs. It must therefore give over this niche to smaller specialists
that have a lower cost structure.
Marketing Process 35

Take, for example, the Québec company Scéno


Plus in the entertainment venue construction
market, which has denitely acquired exper-
tise and has become one of the world leaders
in this sector. is company notably designed
all the performance halls for Cirque du
Soleil, and Céline Dion’s shows in Las Vegas
(see Example 2.2).

Development strategies
As they follow their development objec-
tives, most companies want their sales, prof-
its, market share or size to grow. To achieve
these objectives, managers may use dierent The Bellagio Theatre: One of the achievements of Scéno Plus, it demonstrates
this market nicher’s expertise.
development strategies based on the prod-
uct-market concept. Anso (1957) proposed four types of
Development strategy
strategies for this purpose: market penetration, market develop-
ment, product development and diversication (see Table 2.1, A strategy that consists of increasing sales,
on the following page). prot, market share or the size of the business.

Example
2.2
Niche strategy: the case of Scéno Plus
Founded in 1985, Scéno Plus specializes in design and Scéno Plus and the province of Québec. In 1994, Scéno
construction solutions for entertainment venues. Architects, Plus made its breakthrough on the international scene
technicians, theatre designers, graphic designers, technology with the design of the rst permanent Cirque du Soleil
and specialized audiovisual equipment designers, and theatre in Las Vegas, the Treasure Island Showroom,
project managers all share their expertise and passion which won the Las Vegas Showroom of the Year award in
within a team that sees the most ambitious projects as a its very rst year, along with other awards like Best Major
call to creative action. Concert Venue, in 2010.

Scéno Plus has designed and built numerous enter­ Scéno Plus’s international odyssey continued in the
tainment venues in Québec, in both Montréal and United States with further monumental achievements
surrounding areas. Past achievements—including the in Las Vegas, Chicago, Orlando and Biloxi, as well as
Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, in Europe and the Middle East. Among these projects,
Usine C, the Cabaret­Théâtre du Casino Lac­Leamy, the special mention goes to the Bellagio Theatre for the
Théâtre Hector­Charland, the Amphithéâtre de la Cité de “O” water show, and The Colosseum at Caesars Palace,
l’Énergie and the Centre de Conservation de la Biodiversité which hosted Céline Dion’s mega­production “A New
Boréale—clearly show the special relationship between Day” for ve years.

Source: www.scenoplus.com/en
36 Chapter 2

Table 2.1 Ansoff’s matrix


Existing market New market
Existing product Market penetration Market development

New product Product development Diversication

Source: Adapted from Ansoff, I. (1957, September–October). Strategies for diversication. Harvard Business Review.

Market penetration With market penetration, a company seeks to increase the


sales of its existing products in existing markets by using dierent methods. It can,
for instance, set up a more dynamic distribution network, launch a new commu-
nication campaign or establish attractive pricing. It is important to note that the
company remains in the same market niche and keeps its product intact.
Market development rough market development, a company seeks to increase
its sales by introducing existing products on new markets. While maintaining its
sales eorts in the market segments that it already covers, it broadens its customer
base by proposing the same product to new groups.
Product development With a product development strategy, a business seeks to
increase sales by using its existing markets to launch entirely new products, or “new”
products developed by modifying existing ones. e sale of artists’ memorabilia exem-
plies this strategy. e product development strategy also explains why Walmart
now carries groceries, and why Provigo (Loblaws) branched out into lingerie.
Diversication Finally, a business that adopts a diversication strategy aims
to increase its sales by developing new products for new markets. is strategy is
riskier than the three preceding ones because it combines two new and completely
unknown parameters: products and markets. Lego has used this strategy to fuel its
rebound (see Example 2.3).
Table 2.2 presents a few examples of
actions that can be taken for each of the
strategies discussed above.
In the Anso matrix, dierent possible
scenarios can be classied according to the
degree of risk associated with a strategic
choice. e newer the product or market,
the higher the business risk. e diversica-
tion strategy is therefore the riskiest because
it requires a company to develop new prod-
ucts for markets it does not know; the pen-
etration strategy is the least risky because
it allows a business to remain on familiar
territory; the two other strategies represent
Lego adopted a diversication strategy to boost its revenue. situations between the two extremes.
Marketing Process 37

Example
2.3
Lego’s adventure in movie land
Brand Finance ranked the Danish construction toy but it solidied its strong position by changing strategy
manufacturer as the strongest global brand in 2014; and diversifying. The plastic brick manufacturer ventured
it handily dethroned both Mattel, renowned for its into video games, purchasing licences for franchises
Barbie dolls, and Ferrari. To compile the list, the rm like Star Wars and Harry Potter, and notably harnessed
examined companies’ marketing investment and brand innovative communication vehicles like The Great Lego
equity (namely the goodwill that the brand generated Movie Adventure.
in consumers, employees, and shareholders), along with
the impact of these factors on the company’s results. Released in 2014, this computer-animated lm, which
made $450 million worldwide, had a direct inuence
Lego owes its success to being the sole toy producer on both sales and the brand image. The Brand Finance
that turned to innovation to fuel its growth. Fifteen report says that this movie “has helped propel Lego from
years ago, the brand seemed doomed to a slow decline, a well-loved, strong brand to the world’s most powerful.”

Source: Lego est la marque la plus puissante du monde (2015). 20 minutes. Consulted at www.20minutes.fr/monde/1543867-20150218-lego-marque-plus-
puissante-monde

Table 2.2 Examples of actions for Ansoff’s four types of strategies


Strategy Actions
1. Market penetration • Increase customers’ current rate of use
(increase the rate of use of – Increase the number of units purchased at a time
existing products on existing
markets) – Accelerate the product obsolescence rate
– Advertise for other uses
– Grant monetary premiums for increased use
• Attract competitors’ customers
– Better dene brand differentiation
– Enhance communication efforts
• Attract current non-users
– Promote testing by distributing samples, monetary incentives, etc.
– Push prices up or down
– Advertise new uses
2. Market development • Open new geographic markets
(sell existing products on – Initiate regional expansion
new markets)
– Undertake national expansion
– Plan international expansion
• Attract other market segments
– Develop attractive product versions for other sectors
– Penetrate other distribution channels
– Advertise in other media
38 Chapter 2

Table 2.2 Examples of actions for Ansoff’s four types of strategies (Continued)
Strategy Actions
3. Product development • Develop new product features
(develop new products for – Adapt (to other ideas or other renements)
existing markets)
– Modify (colour, movement, sound, smell, shape or outline)
– Magnify (stronger, longer, thicker or superior value)
– Miniaturize (smaller, shorter or lighter)
– Substitute (other ingredients, procedures or power)
– Modify the arrangement (other designs, displays, sequences or components)
– Return (inverse)
– Combine (mixture, blending, assortment or series; combine units, objects, attractive
features or ideas)
– Develop nuances in quality
– Design new models and new sizes (product proliferation)
4. Diversication • Develop any new product intended for a new market
(develop new products for
new markets)
Source : Adapted from Kotler, P. and Dubois, B. (1973). Marketing management: Analyse, planication et contrôle (2nd ed.). Paris, France: Publi-Union, p. 287.

is analytical tool may be applied in various market contexts. For instance, players
in a given region may use the matrix to compare dierent strategic choices available
to them when developing a tourist customer base, as shown in Example 2.4.

Example
2.4
A company’s campaign to augment
its tourist clientele
Table 1 illustrates the hypothetical situation of a region tourists’ interest; possible choices are presented based
that wants to mount a coordinated offensive to heighten on the risk of the operation.

Table 1 Using the Ansoff matrix to increase tourism in a region


Existing market New market
Existing product 1 2
Penetration Market development
Intensive promotion Promotion abroad or packages
New product 3 4
Product development Diversication
Opening of a nature interpretation Setting up a summer theatre or
centre organizing a festival
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
powder magazine, whilst I, with my servant, had made a long circuit
through the water, in vain. On such an inevitable swelling of the
river, which must lead to the destruction of Khartùm, the old double
lake that has ebbed away, will come to life for some time, and not
only wash away the island of Tuti even to its rocky base, but also the
whole margin of the left shore of the united stream up to Kàrreri,
which, however, possesses in its rocky mountain, about three hours’
distant from Khartùm, a breakwater reaching from the desert of
Baguda.
Ahmed Basha perceived all this very well, when we travelled
together on the Nile to Tomaniàt below Halfaia, where he had taken
the best fields from the Shaïgiës, in an illegal manner, and had
ordered fifty sakies (or chain of buckets, for raising water) to be
constructed upon it, and where the sesame was standing
majestically, higher than a man, and might yet grow another foot.
For this purpose—to obviate the danger which might arise to the
future royal city—the bend of the right shore near Tuti was to have
been broken by a deep canal, in order to carry away the sand from
Hubba, and to deepen there the bed of the river. A favourite plan of
the Basha’s, however, was to make his residence a fortress, to erect
works on Tuti, and to place Khartùm upon an island by a canal, to be
opened from the Blue to the White Nile; for such a canal formerly
existed from Soba to the White Stream. Old people relate, to be
sure, but only as a rumour, that the White and Blue Stream met
together there. The ruins of Soba already known (which place one
hears pronounced likewise Suba and Seba), consists of heaps of
burnt bricks, without any other cement than the Nile slime, which
have supplied the surrounding country for the vaults of the reputed
holy Sheikhs, as well as in more modern times, Khartùm with
materials for its mosque: they extend over a considerable space on
the right shore of the Blue River. I heard the country opposite these
ruins called likewise “Dar Soba;” therefore a contra-Soba, or perhaps
once united to it, since the burnt and fused masses of brick, the
wide-scattered bricks and fragments, even the ditches, if there had
not been clay or foundations and vaults dug out, indicate, at all
events, an old place. A small village on the edge of the river, under
shady mimosas, and called Soba, extends to this. I have found just
as slight traces of that canal, or of the bed of a river in this woody
country, as in the other Soba on the right side of the river; and,
therefore, I cannot assume, with regard to the last-mentioned ruins,
that they were once situated on the land of Sennaar, although the
right shore might indicate the violence of an irruption of water
through the city itself.
Before I forsake the Blue Stream, I must yet remark that, besides
the usual name of “Bach’r asrek,” it is called in this neighbourhood,
“the Nile, or Bahr el Nil,” as I have often convinced myself. If it be
asked why it is called the Nile, the answer is, because it has
beautiful and good water: the old expression for this river is
therefore identical with its properties. It is just the same in Egypt,
where, as I found from experience, especially in Káhira, Bahr el Nil
expresses the material properties of the water, for even the sakkah
(water-carrier) interprets the Nile water with hellue (sweet), in
opposition to cistern and brackish water. The Basha calls it also
nothing but Nile, and says that certain Sheikhs have declared to him,
that ignorant people call it after its blue colour. Nile means in the
Arabic language indigo; otherwise this word is no longer used for a
blue colour. I had an opportunity of hearing the word Nile used for
inundation, together with Ba Kebir, or ruga tossiga (great water),
denoting the same thing. The old expression of Nile awakes here,
therefore, at the moment when it discloses itself as a divinity, a
protector, and a nourisher of the country and people. Only the large
pastoral Arab tribe of the Shukuriës, in the so-called Meroë, between
the Blue River and the Atbara, has the peculiar name of “Adehk,” in
its Aggem language for this stream, whilst the other nations in their
name for it, indicate its colour. Those of Dongola, and Mahass, who
both boast to be Gins betal Thin (people of the soil), call it Amanga
Arumga, and Essige Rumege, and the united stream, Ruga; even the
far distant Nuba negroes, the old support of the family of the
Ethiopian mixture of blood, from Assuan to Rossères, call it Blue
Water (Tè Uri). It is the Blue River, therefore, which possibly has
imposed the name of Nile on the united stream, and might have
formed the road of cultivation to nations wandering down and back
again, whilst the mouth of the White Stream, retarded by lake-like
shallows and swamps, was far less known. As, in addition to this, it
is denied, with some justice, that fertility and good water are the
property of the White River, it might have been, in the ages of
antiquity, despised so much the more, and looked upon as a
subordinate stream, not to be spoken of: not a single burnt brick, or
other memorial, points to an earlier intercourse with it.
Before we entered the mouth of the White Stream, we conferred
the last honour on the sacred water of the Blue River, by filling the
large earthern water-vessels, (Sirr, like the ancient Amphora) with a
great noise, and cursed the White River as being stinking (affen.)
The sails were worked amid prodigious confusion; the north-east
wind blew gently in them, and we bent our course from the Mogren,
(denoting equally conflux and mouth, confluentia et ostium,) round
the northern point of the land of Sennaar, (Ras el Khartùm, head of
the neck of land,) and sailed slowly to the south over the rocks,
overflowed with water, into the White Stream. There we heard the
last kulle-lullu-lulu of the women, who raised, with both hands, their
handkerchiefs in an arch over their heads, as in funerals. This made
most of us laugh, especially my men, who thought that they had as
good teeth as the Njam-Njam, so much feared by many, particularly
by well-fed Egyptians, but whose country no one could point out.
CHAPTER III.
VILLAGE OF OMDURMAN. — MOHAMMED EL NIMR, THE BURNER OF ISMAIL,
MOHAMMED ALI’S SON. — MEROE AND THE PYRAMIDS. — SENNAAR. — WANT
OF DISCIPLINE ON BOARD THE VESSELS. — SCENERY OF THE RIVER. — TOMB
OF MOHA-BEY. — DIFFERENT ARAB TRIBES. — HILLS OF AULI MANDERA AND
BRAME. — SOLIMAN KASCHEF. — REMARKS ON HIS GOVERNMENT. —
AQUATIC PLANTS. — THE SHILLUKS AND BARABRAS. — LITTLE FEAST OF
BAIRAM. — CHARACTERS OF THIBAUT, THE FRENCH COLLECTOR, AND OF
ARNAUD AND SABATIER, THE ENGINEERS. — HONEY. — MANDJERA OR
DUCKS. — FEIZULLA CAPITAN’S EPILEPTIC FITS. — WOODED ISLANDS. — THE
HEDJAZI.

We find ourselves in the gulf, properly speaking, of the arm of the


White Nile, whose waters now extend majestically, and form an
elliptic bay towards Sennaar. The trees of the village of Omdurman,
lying upon the left shore opposite the neck of land, still stood in the
water, as evidence of that forest which Khartùm in its neighbourhood
is said to have absorbed, and by that act to have forfeited the
blessing of rain in an almost incredible manner, excepting the slight
showers which are usual at this season. Omdurman lies upon the
rocky edge of the Desert of Bajuda, and is inhabited by the Gallihn
or Djalin. This people is not of importance on the left side of the
Nile, for it does not possess, except Metemna and some villages, any
settlements; on the east shore of the Nile, however, it makes up the
principal population between Abu Hammed and Abu Haràsk.
Mohammed el Nimr, the burner of Ismail Basha, was the Sheikh of
this people, and was called by them Sedàb. He has founded for
himself, principally through his courage and hatred of the Turks,
which were shewn near Nasùb, a new kingdom on the borders of
Habesh, above Sofi, where the two little rivers of Settiel and
Bassalahm flow into the Atbara: he lives in league with Wud Aued,
the Sheikh of the Dabaina Arabs, and is on the other side connected
by marriage with a Ras of Makada. Immediately beyond the village
of Omdurman, there are found upon the bare, washed-away rocky
ground strown over with pebbles, some foundations and burnt
bricks, which we ourselves saw, were used in the building of the
bazaar, and which were without any admixture of lime, although
they lie upon chalky rocks, from which lime has been burnt for the
Djami and the Bazaar. So, also, the bricks of Gos Burri, where the
traces of a very great colony are extant, travelled to the banks of
Hubba, the bricks of which are of uncommon goodness.
The land of Sennaar, to the west side of which we are now
sailing, is called through the whole country par excellence Gesira,
the Island, for it is taken for one by the people, and is designated
also a land by the latter word, as Meroë was once, and indeed from
the very same cause. But if we speak of the city of Meroë, the ruins
of which we may assume to be in the plain on the Nile under
Shendy, where the villages of Gebelabe, Marùga, Dengèla, and Bahr-
auie are—this place was certainly situated upon an island. The low
country towards the pyramids down to the village Maruga, where a
canal filled with mud now disembogues into the Nile, would plainly
shew this, if a bed of rocks, perhaps intended to separate the sacred
city from the great churchyard, were not just before that heap of
rubbish, on which is pointed out the forge, or the heavy scoriæ of
metals, said to have been wrought by the powerful Kafr Ibn Omàli el
Kebir. The names also of the two villages Bahr-auie, (not Begrauie
and Bigrauie, as the Egyptians and Kenuss pronounce it,) and Ma-
ruga, refer to water, in the same manner as Dengela perhaps does
to a fortress; Dongola, also, is called in old writings Dengela, or
Tongul, (according to old Sheikh Hampsa in Hannak, who is well
read.)
The hills of ruins of Meroë in complexu, are called Geb’l Omàli,
and the Pyramids, which the ass-drivers in Kahira call Piramill and
Paramill, are called here Taralib, and Tarabill, as at Geb’l Barkal. In
the latter place, I heard from the Faki Mohammed in Abhdom, who
has inherited rare manuscripts from his father in Meraui, that the
true name is Tarable, indisputably from Turab, sing. Tura, a grave; if
not from Troab, a stone. Lastly, as to the Pyramids of Assúr, as those
in Meroë or Geb’l Omali are called in Europe, the Sheikh of Maruga
knew them only as Chellal el Aschùr above Metemma. With these
people we are always right, if whilst asking one of them we chose to
fit some name to a place where ruins are found, however corrupt it
may be. This is partly politeness, as I have seen again and again in
“Piramill;” partly, they believe, also, that we, as the descendants of
those Kafirs who built such towers, must know better than they,
where we have to seek for the buried treasures.
Let us ascend, therefore, from the island city of Meroë to
Sennaar, to follow the course of the White Stream up to the
Equatorial country, after some ideas have been first suggested about
the origin of the denomination of this Mesopotamia, which may lead
us back into those times when, according to the notions of the
Egyptians, the Nile separated the Asiatics from the Afers (or Kafirs.)
Sennaar (Σενναάρ, ‫ שְנער‬LXX.) means a land in which Babylon and
other cities lay; Sennaar, better, however, Sennarti, means a little
island near Ambukoll, where, in the language of the Baràbras, “Arti”
denotes an island, and is always appended. “Wachet-sin,” or “sen el
har,” (a hot tooth, or throat,) was a piece of soldier’s wit, which I
heard in the city of Sennaar.
Joy and pleasure reigned on board the vessels, and the fresh air
failed not also to have its beneficent effect upon me, for continual
motion and variety are the principal conditions in the South, on
which depend the good humour and feelings of internal life. Thus,
the present expedition promised me pleasure and strength; and to
enable me to make my ideas and thoughts speak livingly from my
breast, without losing myself in a dreamy state of reclining inactivity;
and to permit me to see, observe, and compare a strange world with
its insipid surrounding scenery, without delaying writing my Journal
till the next morning.
But the prospect of attaining our aim—viz., of seeking and finding
the sources even beyond the equator—appeared to me at the
beginning from the constitution and composition of our expedition,
to be doubtful. The vessels were to follow one another in two lines,
one led by Suliman Kashef, the other by Selim-Capitan; but already,
when sailing into the white stream, this order was no longer thought
of. Every one sailed as well as he could, and there was no trace to
be discovered of nautical skill, unity of movement, or of an energetic
direction of the whole. How will it be, when the spirits, now so fresh,
shall relax through the fatigues of the journey?—when dangers
which must infallibly occur shall arrive, and which only are to be met
by a bold will directed to a determined point?
However, these gloomy impressions could not last long; the
scene around was too picturesque, too peculiar, too exciting. On the
left, the flat extended land of Sennaar was gently clothed again with
copsewood and trees; and on its flooded borders rose strong and
vigorous Mimosas (sunt and harasch) out of the water, high above
the low bushes of Nebeck and Kitter. In the same manner the left
shore was wooded, from which we were at a tolerable distance,
owing to the north-east wind. Behind its girdle of copsewood and
trees, reaching just as far as the waves of the majestic stream in
their annual overflow give their fertilizing moisture to the soil, the
bare stony desert extends upwards, as it shews itself at Omdurman,
in profound and silent tranquillity. So much the more animated and
cheerful was it on the river.
The decks of the vessel, with their crowd of manifold figures,
faces, and coloured skins, from the Arabian Reïs who plies the oar, to
the ram which he thinks of eating as the Paschal Lamb; the towering
lateen sails, with the yard-arms, on which the long streamers,
adorned with the crescent and star, wave before the swollen sails;
the large crimson flags at the stern of the vessel, as they flutter
lightly and merrily through the ever-extending waters; the singing,
mutual hails and finding again, the ships cruizing to and from the
limit fixed for to-day;—everything was, at least for the moment, a
picture of cheerful, spiritual life. With a bold consciousness,
strengthened by the thought of many a danger happily overcome, I
looked beyond the inevitable occurrences of a threatening future to
a triumphant re-union with my brothers.
Nov. 24th.—Our yesterday’s voyage was soon ended. We landed
on the right shore, about two hours’ distant from Khartùm, near the
tomb of Moha-Bey, overshadowed by two luxuriantly-growing
harash-trees. They stood in the water, though the year before, on
the 16th of November, they were far removed from it: thus giving
four feet and a half higher water, and affording me the consolation
of thinking that we shall penetrate further, although I perceive no
great haste in any one, for we might have gone on very comfortably,
and without any danger, the whole night. At sunset yesterday it was
22 degrees Reaumur (at our departure 25 degrees).[4] The
appearance of the scenery had hitherto not changed.
The left shore appears entirely flat, equal in height to the water-
line, to which the distance adds certainly something. Yet, on the
right shore, the river from the Shudder Moha-Bey, has thrown out or
deposited downs, which enter, in an undulating form, into the
deserted lake territory.
The Kalàklas (Arabs) dwell, from these two trees on the right
shore, in two Kabyles, under Sheikhs Bachit and Abugleff. The
Hüsseïnudis (whose Sheikh, Abu Bekr Wollet el Mek, shares with his
father the fame of valour, and of whom the Turks speak with
respect,) extend to the left shore, opposite to the Kalàklas; they pay,
however, Tulba, (tribute) as do all the Arab races of the White River,
up to the Shilluks.
We sailed to-day in the morning at sunrise, but soon halted again
on the right bank of the river, at the Arab tribe of Abdallah Ozerrs,
where we took in wood. Another unnecessary delay! This might have
been done yesterday. From the Abdallah Ozerrs we came to the
Gulamabs and Hussein-Abs (Ab, abbreviation of Arab). At noon we
reached, with a few deviations right and left from our course
towards the south, the rocky hill of Auli, which rises to the height of
some two hundred feet on the right shore, a day’s journey from
Khartùm. From the numerous fragments found in the vicinity, being
a conglomeration of chalk and limestone very much washed and
brittle, this hill evidently belongs to the limestone formation. The
name is derived probably from the Arabic auel; because this is the
first high ground met with on the White Stream. It is also called
Gare-Nebih, from a Sheikh buried there, and from whom also,
conformably to the Arabic custom, the tribes dwelling there have
taken their names.
Opposite to Gebel Auli, over the left side of the river, is seen
another and more extensive elevation, bearing the name of
Mandera. These rocky hills are of granite formation, and seem not to
exceed a height of three hundred feet above the level of the stream.
The word Mandera has here no more a Greek signification than Auli,
although it still means, in Káhira, the lower part of the house, where
the stables generally are to be found; in which, certainly, its analogy
with sheepfold and a monastery is very close. But it here signifies a
height upon which there is no water. On the left bank of the river are
two tribes, which live in friendship and cultivate their durra fields in
common. Higher up are the Gemulies, and beyond these the
Mohammedies, belonging to the race of Gare Nebihs, whose Sheikh
lies buried on the western plain, and who here possess both shores.
The Gebel Mussa soon shewed itself on the left, two hours’
journey from Gebel Mandera, also a hill of rocks (hornstone
formation), which has received its name from the holy Sheikh buried
there. Therefore, here also prevails the tasteless custom which in
Europe has displaced so many radical names of places in history,
tradition, and popular custom. The old name of this mountain is
Brame; in which at present I can see no meaning. Both of these
tribes dwell on the right and left shores; where likewise are found
venerated graves of the family of Sheikh Mussa, to whose progenitor
Mount Mandera belongs. Their present Sheikh is called Mussa Wollet
Makbull,—a sensible, brave man. Rapidity of the stream one sea-
mile; depth four to five fathoms and a half. Yesterday, when we
sounded the stream, there was little or no current, which in fact
decreases with the depth. This morning, at sunrise, it was seventeen
degrees Reaumur; at noon thirty; and in the evening, at sunset, still
twenty-seven degrees in the shade, at the open window.
Nov. 25th.—We halted, yesterday afternoon, opposite the Hill of
Brame (Gebel Mussa), for it was the eve of the lesser Bairam feast,
and Suliman Kashef wished to shew himself there in all his glory. We
had now arrived at his piratical states, an extensive territory of
several days’ journey; which he, as Kashef of the first rank, has
acquired under the ægis of the Basha Ahmed! who had his peculiar
share therein. If he does not understand how to read or interrogate,
his administration, nevertheless, goes on excellently, according to
the Turkish manner. He knows how to receive a complaint or petition
with much grace, and with the other hand, to let the beads of his
sebha (rosary) glide through his fingers to keep time with his course
of ideas; to glance over the paper in appearance whilst he listens to
the bearer, and then to hand it with stately contempt to a Faki to
read to him. Really generous and social by nature, he loves to have
cheerful people, in pure pleasure and genuine joy, around him; and
appears to be beloved by this tribe whom he helps to oppress, since
he selects, like a Nimrod, the élite for his predatory expedition; but if
the enterprise succeed, does not let them go away empty-handed.
As far as the Shilluka and Dinkus he is a dreaded guest, full of
warlike artifices, Circassian and Ethiopian κρυπτεις, and of open
fierce valour, and known only under the name of “Abu Daoud,” which
means “Chief David,” and seems to be an historical name of the
Ethiopian land; for it cannot be supposed to apply to the King or
Prophet David. The old Sheikh Mussa himself appeared to pay his
respects; and the Circassian was exceedingly glad to see him
continue so fresh and well,—at the same time he winked at me to
draw my attention to the flexible nature of the Arabs, when he gave
the Sheikh to understand, with the most unruffled countenance, that
he must procure an indefinite number of cattle and sheep for the
feast of Bairam. All the Arabs suddenly drew a long face.
I made use of the time to examine the country, to ascertain
clearly the lower formation of the valley of the White Stream. Here,
also, the river is partly dammed up by downs, on which there are
single groups of tokuls in the shade of Mimosas, the inhabitants of
which belong to the races of Arabs dwelling farther back, who form a
kind of line of defence towards the Stream, and amuse themselves
with the chase, especially that of the Nile buffalo. Behind these
downs, washed by the stream, is low ground covered with verdure,
which alone would prove that there had been an inundation, even if
standing water were not visible here and there, left by the river
when it broke through or swept away the deposited and
accumulated downs, and spread itself over the low country until it
was sucked up by the sun. The valley, besides the good grass
already dried up, was covered with various kinds of shrubs, with
thorny nebek and kitter, with brandy clover called loïd, with
mimosas, harash, sant, salle, &c. In the midst of these there are
many paths formed in hastening to the water, by which the deer and
the herds, when pursued, immediately divide the huntsmen, and
lead into impenetrable thickets of thorns and creepers, or to sloughs
and swamps where danger threatens on all sides, without their
being able to render assistance to each other. The humid spaces
were covered with luxuriant aquatic plants; amongst which was a
Nymphæa with a reddish calix, like the convolvulus, and large
cordate leaves. This, to my great astonishment, was called Loss, and
reminded me of the old word, lotus, and is as prevalent here as the
white lotus (Nelumbum speciosum), at a later period, the double
flowers of which shine at a great distance through its leaves, taking
light and life from the other aquatic plants, and covering the whole
watery region like flat tumblers. The white lotus, called Zitehb, might
here, as it once did with the Egyptians, serve as an emblem of the
material world, from its abundance, like the potatoes with us; its
roots serving equally for food.
The stream had not long returned to its limits, as I soon
convinced myself, when, wandering to its brink, I saw to the south
of this embankment an expanse of water stretching far over the
land, out of which the tops of the taller trees peeped forth like
verdant islands. Beyond the inundation still older downs were visible,
which are no longer disturbed by water. These heights and hills
connected with each other in an extremely arbitrary manner, or lying
scattered, and partly forming a manifold circumvolution of the white
stream, are not perhaps remains of an old deposit from the river, but
probably the product of alluvial soil and earth thrown up. The river
acquires for itself, from its well-known fruitful qualities—the nature
of the place being favourable, by means of the plants floating
towards it—a green border, which mostly consists of bushes, whose
roots, matted together, resist the action of the stream. These bushes
retain the yearly deposited slime of the Nile, and continue to grow
with the ascending ground. So, likewise, the sand driven in when the
water is low, and the portion of earth thrown up by the violent
squalls of wind, remain behind protected by the bushes. When the
water is at its greatest possible height, this accumulation is chiefly
covered with its fertilizing layer of slime; whilst by the pressure of
the water and the particles forcing themselves upwards, it still
becomes higher. The sandy earth deposited by every wind, and the
roots of the bushes penetrating through the moist soil, increase the
swell of this formation of hills, by the fall of their leaves and wood,
as one may plainly see in the spheroid and parallel sites of the
shores of the downs, which have been partly destroyed.
In the interior beyond Mandera dwell the Kabbabish Arabs, a
widely-spread Nomad race, possessing large droves of camels and
horses, which they bring down from time to time to the shore to
drink, and to supply themselves with drinkable water. This is the
point of time at which Suliman Kashef is on the watch to extort
tribute from them.
The Baghara (cow herdsmen, from Bagh’r, a cow), a wide-spread
Arabian tribe, dwell further up the stream and possess the country
as far as Kordofan. Their name is collective for many Kabyles of this
Nomadic nation, who are to be considered as branches from the
very same root, although from necessary local circumstances (in
reference to pasture-ground), or from dispersions brought about by
dissensions, various names of places and chiefs must have arisen
gradually displacing the names of the original race (gios), and
recognizing no longer any patriarch or archezekes, or Great Sheikh,
but only the kindred (Kabyle), of their hereditary leader or Sheikh.
The latter we see in their peculiar origin in every Arabian camp in
the closer union of their relations, and in every great Arabian village,
where they live retired among themselves, and frequently by means
of a a seriba (enclosure) like families, in the encampment of a
people who are of one and the same blood.
The Mahass use the expression gebeirù for Kabyle, and this
corresponds with the signification of γένεα. On account of this
original connection by blood, no wars occur between them, the
boundaries of their pasture-grounds having continued undisturbed
among them since ancient times, and been recognized by other
tribes, though lying before them in small separate encampments.
The Baghara of the left shore are here all mounted, which enables
them to make daring incursions into the lands of the Shilluks and
Jenugah, who are not horsemen. The Baghara, on the contrary, of
the right side of the river in Sennaar, settle themselves very
submissively with their whole family to take care of cattle, entrust
the charge of the tents to the women and children, and exhibit to
the spectators the most strange groups when they move from one
place to the other, and kindled fire in the evening to cook by, in front
of every tent. Precisely because of their difficulty in moving,
contributions are levied on them by the Basha, and they are hostilely
visited, on which occasion the Funghs unite themselves to the Turks.
The Baghara are also forced to come to the shore for water and
pasture, when they are frequently waylaid, robbed, and plundered
by the Shilluks, who, however, only requite like for like.
I heard that the Shilluks, who dwell in these parts on the river
islands, and on both shores, but further up on the left only, display
uncommon skill in their marauding expeditions. The Arabs say they
crawl upon all fours as swiftly as a snake; and rarely use force to
effect their robberies, but effect their purpose with incredible
cunning—a circumstance which agrees but ill with our preconceived
idea of the qualifications of a robber. In the East, however (we will
not speak generally of the Southern lands); and, indeed, among the
ancient Greeks, craft was considered equally worthy of a man as
open combat, if it led to the point aimed at. The Shilluks are said
also to be compelled to use artifice in this anterior part of their
territory; which has extended, according to the expression of the
Barabras, up to the mouth of the White River, because their number
has become very small by the advance of the Arab tribes, with their
horsemen clad in armour, and they could effect nothing by open
violence. Peculiar washed-up limestone conglomerates and porous
volcanic productions are here found on the shore, as well as a
number of small Conchylia; Paludina bulimoides, Melania fasciolata,
Neritijachasa Jordani, Cyrene consobrina, and a new species of
Physa, distinguished by a plait on the spire.
Nov. 26th.—Before we left Sheikh Mussa, yesterday morning at
eleven o’clock, we had an uncommonly stirring and merry time of it.
The Rhamadan, fasting month, was luckily over, and the little feast
of Bairam, which follows it, was celebrated the more worthily,
because Sheikh Mussa had not remained deaf to the friendly
persuasion of Suliman, and had had oxen and sheep driven down
quite early in such quantities, that the eyes of the whole crew
sparkled at seeing them. In a trice the Kashef allotted their shares to
the different ships, and sent me also two capital wethers for the next
day, the beef here being generally tough and coarse, and even
despised by the Turks.
This peculiarity of the meat depends on the nature of the fodder;
for the tender grass and herbs of our marsh-lands and pastures are
wanting here. And the climate exercises a considerable influence in
the hardening of animal texture, which the surgeon himself
perceives when operating on the human body. Our Arabs, who, like
the Greeks and Jews, born butchers and flayers, know no mercy for
beasts or men, fell upon the victims, hamstrung them, to obviate the
chance of any resumption of the gift; and the festive hecatomb fell—
a sight pitiful to behold. Every one tried, during the flaying and
quartering, to cut off a little piece or strip of meat, or stole it from
the back of the bearers. This little booty was stuck on skewers into
the glowing fires, which were still burning, and voraciously
devoured, in order to prepare the stomach for the approaching
banquet. Although they know how to roast the liver excellently, they
preferred at this moment to cut it up into a flat wooden dish
(gadda), to pour the gall of the slaughtered beast over it, strew it
with salt and pepper, and so to eat it raw. This tastes not a bit worse
than a good raw beefsteak. The ships were drawn up abreast, in
order to lessen the procession of the general salutation to the
Bairam.
I found Selim-Capitan with Suliman Kashef: the former had
thought it well to do homage to the latter as his superior, by offering
him his congratulations. Suliman embraced me tenderly, right and
left, according to the Turkish custom; and so did every one in his
turn, till I began at last to take myself for a Turk, although I did not
even know the formula of salutation. Araki (brandy from Aràk,
perspiration, distillation) was handed round instead of the coffee
(Kawoë) usual at other times; and the servants had enough to do to
continue filling the small flagon, in spite of the extreme narrowness
of the spout through which the liquor had to pass into the glasses.
The Frenchmen also soon appeared in Turkish costume, as we all
were; their sabres by their sides, as also is usual at every visit; and,
moreover, with their marks of distinction on their breasts. But, in
spite of all the airs they tried to give themselves, they were far
surpassed by Suliman Kashef in personal imposing dignity; so that
no one, even if he did not know the different relations in which they
stood, could be in doubt who was of the most importance here. His
demeanour is quite simple, but yet of that character that it restricts
every pretension to its proper limits; although Arnaud tried to speak
like Mohammed Ali, as if he had been his privy-counsellor, and
wanted to prove to us that he was a Marquis; whereupon he
acquired there and then the name of “Le Prince de la Lune,” in
honour of his bald pate and his marquisate in the mountains of the
moon.
We set sail, with a faint breeze, at about eleven o’clock, with
twenty-nine degrees Reaumur, towards south. I remained with the
Frenchmen till noon. Thibaut was soon somewhat the worse for
liquor, and uttered all kinds of stale witticisms. Although he has
sojourned many years in these parts, he still remains while on his
travels a genuine Parisian, who, wherever he goes, never divests
himself of the Parisian atmosphere, and interests himself in nothing,
properly speaking, but the doings of that city. To-day his brain was
haunted with the Parisienne, which he was humming incessantly,
although he had not seen the revolution to which it owes its origin.
The two other gentlemen are a perfect contrast: Arnaud affecting
to be continually busy, without however producing anything, and
throwing out continual bitter taunts against his young colleague
Sabatier. The windows are covered with curtains: he does not
venture out of doors to make the necessary inquiries; but merely
now and then looks at the box-compass, although the vessels turn
every moment, and go first to the right, and then to the left shore.
The compass, therefore, affords no indication whatever of the course
of the stream, for the boundaries of its shore generally decrease
from the height of the water, and become undefined; and thus a
correction of the compass might possibly be made on the return
voyage. Sabatier, on the contrary, appears quite negligent and lazy,
because he is not well, and will not endure the arrogance of Arnaud;
so that these gentlemen engineers mutually accuse each other of
ignorance. In other respects, he seems to me a frank and open
youth, who might be taken for an American rather than for a
Frenchman, from his having served in Texas.
I found the time hang heavy with these insipid men and the
monotonous scenery, and was not a little glad, when the uniformity
of the latter was broken by the luxuriant clump of trees on the island
of Assal. The island, which is not large, is said to derive its name
from honey (Assal), which is collected in great quantities from the
trees on it, as also on those of the islands succeeding. This wild
honey is blackish, and leaves in the mouth a bitter taste, derived
from the wood, mostly sunt. Honey from trees is generally not so
fine and palatable as that found in rocks; accordingly, the honey
from the Hejaz, nearly white, and almost crystalized, is even
preferable to the Grecian. Tree honey is said generally to have
something narcotic in it, but then it must be eaten by spoonfuls, for
I have not found it so. There is, indeed, a drink prepared from it,
which is certainly intoxicating. The blossoms of the mimosa,
blooming nearly throughout the whole year, afford the principal
resources of the bees, although there is no want of flowers, which,
in conjunction with the tanning-bark of the knot-holes, may
contribute to the narcotic qualities of the honey. Those nests,
hanging loosely, of a species of wasp, which give only a little honey,
and are seen in Taka, do not appear here.
The village of Thebidube is next seen on the right shore; it
belongs to the great race of the Hassaniës. I was surprised to
observe, not far from the village, ruins, clearly the remains of larger
buildings than Arabs huts. The place was called Mandjera or Docks,
and I learned that the former governor, Kurshid Basha, had founded
these extremely convenient docks, owing to the forest being near.
They were, however, abandoned by Ahmed Basha, in accordance
with the favourite Turkish system—because his predecessor was the
founder.
Half an hour above, we lay-to at the village of Masgerag el Tair.
Masgerag is said to mean the same as “street;” the whole word,
therefore, is “Bird Street,”—but we did not see many birds. Here the
Sheikh Mohammed of Wadi Shileï came to greet us. The Arabs of
this place also call themselves Shileï, from a Sheikh buried here,
although they belong to the main stem of the Hassaniës. An Arnaut
of Suliman’s shot, in my presence, a hare whilst running; the ball
entered in behind, and passed out in front. The Turks consider
themselves the best shots in the world, as well as the best riders:—
although they can do little when the animal is running and the bird
on the wing, on account of their long and heavy guns.
Believe it or not, you may hear this boast every day, without
being able to convince them to the contrary.
Nov. 27th.—Here, on the borders of the Arabian dominions, we
waited in vain for a courier from the Basha, fearing lest he should
have changed his intention with respect to the expedition. I passed a
very bad night. In the middle of the most profound sleep, I was
awakened by a fall in the cabin. My good Feïzulla Capitan, the
commander of my vessel, had tumbled on the ground from his
tolerably high place of rest opposite to me. I thought I heard the
death-rattle, and saw by the light of the lantern, that the froth was
standing in his mouth, which was firmly closed. The servant very
coolly said to me, “Mabegaff!” (don’t be afraid). It was the first time
that I had tried to open the hands of a person struck with epilepsy,
but upon my doing so, he soon came to himself, to the astonishment
of the crew; towards morning, however, he had two more fits. I now
learnt, not to my great consolation, that he had from youth upwards
suffered this affliction, and that it frequently returned. But my night’s
rest was disturbed, and I sat myself on my Bamber before the door,
where the sentry very quietly slept. When this fit came on Feïzulla, I
sprang to him, without any one else having troubled themselves
about him, because he was too good and indulgent to the men.
Hard drinking, together with the heat, had contributed perhaps,
chiefly to the violence of this attack.
The air was cool, compared with the heat of the day, and the
profound stillness of the night was very impressive, through the soft
uniform rippling of the water on the stern of our ships; but the
snoring of the crew, who were lying pell-mell, was insufferable. I
had a peculiar feeling of loneliness and abandonment, not lessened
by the reflection that I was on the White Nile,—this stream, the
source and course of which had appeared a riddle for centuries to all
cultivated nations. As a half-forgotten tradition descending to our
days from the infancy of the human race, impels us to explore the
Nile, so our expedition is, in the main, nothing but a continuation of
the endeavours of the Priests of the Nile, the Pharaohs, the
Phœnicians, the Greeks under the Ptolemies, and the Romans under
Cæsar and Nero. It is as if mankind in general, like a single
individual, were ever seeking anew, with unabated desire, the
sources with which the first awakening to intellectual consciousness
is connected.
The sun rose to day magnificently behind the old high trees on
the brink of the river, when we sailed further to the south. I
remarked that the trees standing quite in the neighbourhood of the
water or in it, were mostly withered. These, therefore, had had too
much of a good thing, and soon died away through the sudden
change, when the water left them, although they surpassed in size
the older trees behind them. Passing by the village of Damas on the
right shore, and the three luxuriantly wooded islands (the most
important of these is called Tauowàt), where the vessels made,
certainly, many windings, without the course of the shores of the
river being ascertained, except that they had a southerly direction.
We came towards noon to the mountain group of Areskell, which
elevates extremely picturesquely its six or seven rocky peaks on the
left shore, although at some distance from it. At their foot lies the
large village of Tura, up to which the ships from Khartùm and
Sennaar come, for from this place two main roads lead to Kordofan.
At two o’clock in the afternoon we were for the first time, with a
faint breeze, opposite the mountain, and landed at the village of
Masgerag Debasa. We sent our Sandal across to Tura, which,
because our fleet and Abu Daoud were dreaded, brought us back
wethers and butter. The village itself was not to be seen; it lies, like
most of the villages (of which, several in this route are dissimilar,
though nothing to signify), as concealed as possible, and further
inland on account of the inundation.
At sunset, the country presented a truly charming landscape. The
stream, which might have been here about an hour broad, glowed
like liquid gold, whilst the sun hid itself behind the Araskòll, and the
slender sickle of the moon shone clearer in the west, with Venus, in
the cloudless sky. The three islands of Genna, Siàl, and Schèbesha,
stood out, with their thick forests, from the tranquil water; and on
the other side the pointed peaks of the mountains grew dim in the
deep blue, over the dusky woody foreground of the left border of
the river, with the charms of an island in the Ægean Sea. Close to
me, the shore is enlivened by the coloured and black forms of the
crew; some play and wrestle, with songs to the sounds of the pot-
drum, (Tarabuka); others lie and squat round the fire, stir and cook
by it; others hunt, while some throw themselves into the stream,
pursue each other in swimming, dive, and run again to the fires,
which, in the increasing darkness, throw magical streaks of light on
the water, and repeat themselves in it, with the strange groups
illuminated by them. So long as the flesh-pots of Egypt, distributed
among them by Suliman Kashef, hold out, they are all of good cheer,
and appear to have no other wish than to spend the time agreeably
according to their own fashion; to play nonsensical pranks, and
make jokes for the amusement of the Turks, and when that is no
longer practicable, to return as quickly as possible. With respect to
the real design of our expedition, I see on all sides, a negligence and
indifference which nearly make me mad. The latitude is 14° 5′.
Nov. 28th—The sun has risen an hour since.—At last the drum
was beaten to shew that our Jason, Suliman Kashef, was awake and
permitted Selim Capitan to set sail. We had left the two tree-islands,
Genna and Sial, on the right, and turned to the left shore. I now
found confirmed what I had already remarked—namely, that
throughout the left shore, there are not any heights or downs, as on
the right. Therefore the stream exercises a far greater dominion over
the former, as is plainly seen by the extensive wooded country being
inundated. The wide brink of the shore appears principally to lie on
the right side of the river, and generally above the level of the left
side, which circumstance, perhaps, might be accounted for from the
cutting down of the Ethiopian Highlands. We also remarked, from
the edge of the right shore being torn away, that a more fertile soil
has covered the lower earth, and that the stratum of land is only
upon the surface, whereon the downs lay. We found yesterday, near
the Island of Tauowàt, a shining black, sandy earth, which Mr.
Arnaud called mud: the naturalist, Thibaut, on the contrary, declared
it was ferruginous earth; it was, however, nothing else than black
volcanic sand. It was mixed with clay, and looked like the laminæ of
sifted iron dross; small black crystals formed nearly a third of the
component parts, (pyroxene and horne blende, according to
appearance). It seemed to have been brought here from the eastern
side by a gohr now filled up with mud, or by an old channel of the
river, and formed on the shore a layer of about a foot high, above
which again was the usual earth strongly alloyed with sand. I had
already seen on the right shore volcanic productions. It would
therefore be interesting to follow these traces with the gohr into the
interior, in order to explain these phenomena in Central Africa.
We quitted the before-mentioned Island of Schèbesha, on the
left, and arrived at ten o’clock on the Island of Gùbesha, nearly two
hours’ long. If the right shore has unprotected places where the
water enters deep into the trees, the inundation also extends so far
on the left shore, that the eye may follow over the plain the
glistening of the water through cavities and decayed wood. The
Island of Hassamë, also very woody, comes directly after Gùbesha,
and is soon succeeded by the Duème, which is covered with wood.
These islands, according to the eye, extend in a line from south to
north. About noon, we had the last-named island at our side, and,
for the first time, put into the left shore. Here Mustapha Bey had
established a Saghië (a water-wheel, for the purpose of irrigation);
and many things of the same kind, as well as a settlement, would
have followed, if the good man had not been poisoned. In the
neighbourhood of Khartùm, Ahmed Basha, fearing his influence with
the population would not permit the purchase of land, as the Bey
declared to me himself. He also related his campaigns, in which he
reached the “Gazelle River,” and a large lake, from whence the White
River issues, and which must be that lake the first expedition sailed
through. This is the last place where we shall pass the night ashore,
for it behoves us to be secure from the natives. I did not examine
our landing-place till the sun was going down, because it did not
appear to me advisable to go to the chase with my huntsmen, and
to expose myself to the heat of 29 degrees.
The acclivities here extend far backwards into the country, and
afford a proportionate extensive survey. I ascended the nearest hill,
and was not a little surprised to find, in and upon the black earth, a
number of fragments of earthenware, and pieces of burnt brick, as
likewise decayed and consumed conchylia. I soon perceived also,
new graves, belonging to the small village near at hand, which
convinced me that I was standing in an old churchyard, to which the
new one joins, because the Moslems never bury another person in
the place where once a body has lain. The number of conchylia is
easily explained: it is the custom of the people to secure their graves
in this manner against wild beasts, which would otherwise root them
up; for they always cover them with broken white flints, which do
not exist here. This village is new, and was founded by a Faki, a
native of the country, who lived a long time in Hejàz, and by the aid
of Kurshid Basha, who wanted to make it a strong station. The
people, as well as their village, are called on that account Hejasi,
which I continually heard pronounced Ajazi; and took for a national
name—as the respected Burckhardt did the Ajazi, in Sennar,—until
the corrupted word was explained to me etymologically. Not a soul
came from the village to welcome us, and an embassy was sent just
as little on our side, to fetch a Don gratuit, or Viaticum, since the
pious devotees of this place are called, naas batalin (malignant
people), and therefore I was immediately recalled from my
excursion.
Suliman Kashef was vexed at the non-appearance of the Faki,
and was of opinion that he was a devil (Afritt), who must however
be spared. Here, in the vicinity of Pagan nations, these Hejazi form a
kind of missionary establishment, at the head of which is the Faki as
the Sheikh, who, far from imitating the luxurious ostentation of other
missionaries in the East, has arrived at last by mortification and
eloquence at a self-consecration, and has gained a great number of
adherents, even in Darfur, where the Islam has been spread for
some time past. He has known also how to maintain his authority by
a judicious use of fire-arms; for his rabble of pilgrims are fanatical
and insolent. Their slaves, converted per fas et nefas, are the most
zealous adherents of the Koran, when they have once breathed the
air of Mecca, and return as free Hajjis, to their country, though they
have generally only learnt the usual prayer “Allah Akbar,” with the
short confession of faith, “La illah ul ullah wa Mohammed Rassúl
Alla” (there is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of
God).
This formula is sung without intermission, in funeral ceremonies,
keeping time to the trot, rather than to the walk of the bearers of
the corpse. It is a formula which every traveller here should remark;
although I, for my part, have never made use of it, except for a joke
with my brother, when he or I lay sick in bed of a fever, and
desponding. As the apothecary Bartoli, in Khartùm, a year ago,
repeated directly before his death this formula, as a piece of wit
which happened to be his last words, the Muslíms, who were
present, wanted to carry him immediately to their churchyard, and
to return thanks to God for having enlightened him with the true
belief.
Kurshid Basha ordered Saghiës to be built here, at his own cost,
for the Hejazi; but the scaffolding for them is only to be seen now. I
believe, from the various traces of earlier and extensive agriculture,
to which these heights owe indeed their irriguous formation, that the
fragments of bricks and the potsherds I had just found, belonged to
an earlier city, which had fallen to ruin, or been destroyed, and
which perhaps stood on the site of the old churchyard. The hill,
about thirty feet high, being so close to the water, must have invited
a settlement at a very early time. It is clearly perceptible that the
water by the river-side has carried away a good deal of the hill. This
may have been sufficient cause, for the inhabitants of the city, to
desert it entirely. It is true that the soil is here also dark in its lower
strata; but it is, however, very strongly alloyed with sand, and has
but little resemblance to the greasy and slimy soil of Lower Egypt,
and even to the shore of the blue Nile. The process of fecundation in
the inundations of the Nile, consists indeed in the vegetable remains
of the neighbouring forests, and abundant marsh-plants, which have
been washed away, settling and depositing themselves afterwards as
a humus, when they have been amalgamated by continual rotation
with particles of clay and sand from the dark yellow Nile water, till
they become a liquid pap. On the shores of the White Stream the
woods are too near, and therefore their fallen leaves are carried
away before the vegetable process can have properly taken place.
For this reason I account for the fertility being so much less in
proportion. After all, I believe that the Blue river is the real parent of
Egyptian fertility, and that there was more; before the Dam, thrown
up by it on the right ride, prevented it from carrying away also the
leaves from the eastern forests. The Atbara and the smaller influxes
of the right shore of the blue Nile above, still remain perfect canals
of fecundity; and it is plainly seen by their darker colour that they
separate at high-water.
Our Frenchmen, this afternoon, set about calculations with a
great air of importance, although they did not appear to be well.
Sebatier has had an attack of siriasis, and Arnaud has also lost much
of his pathos. I hear with astonishment that the calculations made
hitherto by these gentlemen, are said to agree to a hair’s breadth
with those made by Selim Capitan in the preceding year. Strange!
But I don’t believe in such an exact coincidence. It is much more
probable that the Turk, being a naval officer, has far more
experience than the all-knowing Frenchmen; and that the latter,
being well aware of it, adopted their predecessors’ calculations
without any scruple.
Selim Capitan laughed when he yesterday instructed Arnaud in
handling the instruments. Thibaut remarked this as well as myself;
and it perfectly corresponds with the expressions of Sabatier, who
calls his colleague an ignoramus, because he abandons to him the
calculations he does not know how to make himself.
At a distance of twelve hours’ journey from the before-named Hill
of potsherds, near the village of Hejazi, is seen, towards the south-
west, a considerable mountain. It is called Bihtsh; which name is
found also in the islands of Philæ. I could not find any such word in
the language by which I could judge of the analogy of the two
mountains. The Gebel Bihtsh is said to contain silver; and at
Masgerag Tain it is asserted that silver has been found up the
country, from whence came the present, which the Sheikh of Wadi
Shileï in that country brought to Suliman Kashef. This present was a
stick, curved at the top, some two feet longer than the one in
common use from Korosko hither; and though only of the thickness
of a finger, was called Hassaie,—an expression which is used besides
for a heavy club. This pastoral sceptre was very prettily overlaid with
silver, and the ornaments on it merely engraved with a bad knife;
and, considering such a wretched instrument, they were of
marvellous fineness. In Sennaar, as well as in Kordofan, they know
how to wire-draw gold and silver; to make remarkably beautiful zerfs
(the inlaid stands of coffee cups), and sword-handles from these
metals, displaying good taste; although, particularly in the last-
mentioned articles, where crowns as the head-top, and the form of
the cross, are engraved on the handle, the whole representing a
knight’s sword, called Sefbanbrah; the West and the Crusades have
afforded them models.
CHAPTER IV.
MONOTONOUS SCENERY. — CULTIVATION OF DATE-PALMS. — EL AES. —
BOUNDARY OF THE TURKISH DOMINIONS. — REPUBLIC OF APES. — HUSSEÏN
AGU’S FAVOURITE MONKEY. — CRUELTY OF EMIR BEY. — ADVENTURE WITH A
CROCODILE. — BELIEF OF THE TURKS IN THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.
— LIEUT. ABD. ELLIAB, THE DEVOTEE. — THE TAILORING PROPENSITIES OF
FEÏZULLA CAPITAN. — A “FANTASIE”. — FEÏZULLA’S INTEMPERANCE. —
GUINEA-FOWLS. — ABU SEID. — DESCRIPTION OF WATER PLANTS, AND
GRAPES PECULIAR TO THE WHITE NILE. — THE AMBUK-TREE. — GEBL DINKU.
— ABDURIECKMAN, CHIEF OF THE SHILLUKS, AND SULIMAN KASHEF’S
BARBARITY. — HIPPOPOTAMIA, AND CURIOUS SUPERSTITION OF THE
SAILORS. — THE DINKAS AND THE SHILLUKS. — THE LOTUS. — MOUNT
DEFAFAUNGH. — TAMARIND TREES. — THE TAILOR-CAPTAIN, AND
INSUBORDINATION OF HIS CREW. — FIRST APPEARANCE OF GNATS.

Nov. 29th.—The fires were still blazing on the shore when the
drum was beat for decampment, and the sleepers lying around them
were partly obliged to be awaked with good blows in the ribs. To-
day, for the first time, we set out before sun-rise. Whether the
expression I uttered in a conversation with the two Turkish
commandants,—“We must make haste and gain honor from the
Viceroy and Basha; for if another expedition should appear
necessary, he will certainly place it under the supreme command of
a ‘Frank,”—had any thing to do with these unusual exertions, I
venture not to decide. It is certain, however, that they dreaded my
Journal, for Ahmed Basha declared that he would have it translated
into Turkish. A brisk north wind got up with the sun, and we sailed
E.S.E., making five sea-miles and a half in the hour, according to the
log, which gives, however, one mile for the current or rapidity of the
river.
The channel to-day swarms with islands, so that we sailed by at
least eight before nine o’clock; when we had one on our left side
three hours’ long; others were probably concealed from us. It is
really fortunate that trees always indicate the presence of an island,
else we might have many times splendidly run a-ground, for the
shallows are only slightly covered with water; and the grass,
shooting above the surface, proves the frequent fluctuation of
different channels. The voyage is very monotonous; though the
numerous shallow islands are often grouped very picturesquely, and
appear sometimes to bar the river, and to dam it up into a lake.
Added to that, we have always the sight of a majestic stream,
bordered by green osiers; but the verdure itself offers no variety in
the foliage and form of the trees, no blending of colours, since it
presents to the sight only mimosas, which are here merely sunt-
trees. There is no rock, house, hill, or mountain here whereon the
eye, wearied of monotony, can rest, and which might serve as the
halting point of imagination; moreover, there is not a sound to be
heard in nature. The gigantic American streams can alone produce a
similar impression. Although the river in some places intrudes deeper
than usual into the right shore, yet the limits of the inundation are
always sharply cut off, whereas on the left side the water is seen
continually between the dark shaded trunks of the trees, where even
the lowest branches do not prevent it from running on in parallel
gohrs, or deserted beds of the stream, into other tracks of the river,
glittering especially at noon, when it is usually calm. Many of these,
which now appear to us to be islands, will, perhaps, when all the
water returns, join on uninterruptedly to the mainland. Two shots,
the signal of danger to one of the ships, fall behind us, and are
repeated by us and the other vessels. Thibaut’s vessel draws water;
but the Turks laugh at his anxiety, sail on, and say that he is drunk
(sakràn).
Towards eleven o’clock the wood on the right shore opened, and
some tokuls were visible on the shore, at a little distance from the
river, on a line of hills running parallel with it, and standing near
those dome-palms we had hitherto missed, with the exception of the
young copse on the water’s edge. The cultivation of dates, which
might really be a blessing to the country, in Sennaar, as well as in
the extraordinarily fertile Taka, is entirely neglected, although the
gardens near the city of Sennaar, like those numerous gardens in
Khartùm, afford examples of a very advantageous transplanting in
these southern regions. They will doubtless give a refreshing
appearance to the latter melancholy-looking city by their rich crowns
of fruit, when they once rise over the clay walls and houses
surrounding it. But the people, that they may escape the taxes
imposed on every date-tree bearing fruit, will not plant and take care
of them; neither will they cultivate cotton, because they are obliged
to deliver the produce into the Shune at an arbitrary price. Ahmed
Basha had 6000 young date-palms brought up by water from Sokkot
and Mahass. The ground he chose in his caprice to form a close
plantation in, with these trees, lay too low (for he wanted to save
the expense of irrigation), and the Nile overflowing it, uprooted and
choked with its slime the fine young stems. No Turk thought of
washing the slime off and planting them again. The Basha did not
grieve at this abortive work, and was even of opinion that the Nile
had done well, for the lazy people of the island (Sennaar) would
never work again if they once had dates, as is the case in the
country of the Baràbras, who could never be good soldiers (askari).
We approached the place, and found only three people there
standing by their watched boats; and saw, far on the naked plain,
men engaged in driving their cows into the interior to secure them
from us. The miserable village, which may number some fifty
decayed tokuls, was called El Aes, although it is only a summer
village for herdsmen and fishermen belonging to the larger city of El
Aes, lying up the country. This city once gave the name of land of El
Aes, or Dar el Aes to the whole region up to Khartùm, now known
under the name of Wollet Medine, lying above Khartùm, on the Blue
Nile. The city of El Aes is one of the principal colonies of the
Hassaniës, and was at the time of the Funghs one of the three
capitals of the kingdom; the others were Sennaar and the now
almost deserted Arbagi on the Blue river. It is also a kind of
emporium between the Shilluks and Sennaar, wherein the traders of
El Aes, by their slaves, barter Kurbàshes (the whips commonly used
here, made from the skin of the hippopotamus), tamarinds, dried
bamies, and Uèka, in exchange for horned cattle, durra, and woollen
stuffs. The Sheikh el Belled had prudently departed for Khartùm, and
could not therefore wait upon us here with a contribution, to become
our guide and interpreter through the islands, as he did the
preceding year, when Suliman Kashef, without any ceremony,
retained him on board ship with his son. On this account we did not
land; besides, we feared that our men would desert.
Immediately above the village commences again the forest, and
we see by the many dry leaves scattered about that the
consumption of firewood, and consequently the accumulation of
human beings, cannot be very considerable. As there was nothing to
be got we did not remain long. Close to the left shore is an island
nearly three hours’ long, one of those fertile plains so numerous
here, six more of which we passed, though indeed of less size, up to
three o’clock in the afternoon. At this time we landed some two
hours’ above the so-called El Aes, near the old and partly withered
trees, for the purpose of taking in wood for fuel. The ancient
elevated river’s edge, up to which the water can no longer rise,
being retained by the downs which are themselves washed up, is
plainly visible on the right shore, through the light places.
Now we are beyond the boundaries of the Turkish dominions;
that is, properly speaking, beyond the intricate and organized Turco-
Egyptian system of plunder. Henceforth, tribute (tulba) is no longer
collected. At my question, what people dwelt here, the Turks
answered regularly, like the Arabs, “Kulo Abit” (all slaves.) I could
not help laughing, and made them understand, to their vexation,
that these people are free, and not so much bondsmen and slaves
as they are themselves: that they must first take them prisoners to
make them slaves, for which they had no particular inclination, and
answered me very naïvely, “the slaves here are very numerous and
brave!” (shatter.) This contemptuous expression, “kulo abit,” is used
by the Ottomans, almost like the classical barbari—that same
classical word which the modern Greek has learnt by heart from
foreign schoolbooks with a good-natured orthodoxy.
The vessels not being able to reach the dry land, owing to the
shrubs and trees, I had myself carried through the water to the
shore, in order to take a survey of the country and to make a
shooting excursion. I could not, however, make up my mind to use
my gun, the only animals in the neighbourhood I could shoot being
white-grey long-tailed apes, called Abelènk, similar to the
Cercopithecus Sabæus, but more silver-grey and far larger. I had
shot such an one on a former occasion, and the mortally wounded
animal had, by his similarity to a human being and his piteous
gestures, excited my compassion so much, that I determined never
to kill another. Mr. Arnaud, on the contrary, took a peculiar pleasure
in watching the wounded monkeys which fell by his shot, because, in
the agonies of death, the roof of their mouths became white like
that of a dying man. It was affecting to see how the mother apes
precipitated themselves down from the old sunt trees and secured
their young, playing before our feet, behind the high branches, and
darted round the corner until another malignant ball reached them
from behind, whereupon they let their young fall from their arms,
but the little creatures clung firmly to the old one by running,
climbing, and springing under her belly. They live together in families
of several hundreds, and their territory is very limited even in the
forest, as I myself subsequently ascertained. Although they fear the
water very much, and do not swim voluntarily, yet they always fled
for security to the high branches hanging over the stream, and often
fell in, whereupon they, in spite of imminent danger, carefully wiped
their faces, and tried to get the water out of their ears before they
climbed up into the trees. Such a republic of apes is really a droll
sight,—coaxing, caressing, and combing each other, plundering,
fighting, and tugging one another by the ears, and, during all these
important concerns, hastening every moment down to the river,
where, however, they satisfy themselves with a hurried draught, in
order that they may not be devoured by the crocodiles constantly
keeping watch there. The monkeys on board our vessels not being
fastened, turned restless at the sight of the jolly free life, and at the
clamour of their brethren in the trees.

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