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Abstract
The role of intermediaries in the distribution system of the cognac brandy trade changed with the choice of brand strategies by producers, thanks to the development of favorable legislation for property rights. Prior to the enforcement of trademark laws, consumers relied heavily upon the personal reputations of retailers in order to choose the spirits they drank. The recognition of producers’ trademarks in the second half of the nineteenth century reconfigured the issue of trust by allowing producers to integrate forward into distribution and marketing and by allowing consumers to trust an entity that they did not know personally: producers’ brands. They took over part of retailers’ work and tried to monitor intermediaries so as to enhance their own name as a sign of quality.
Acknowledgement
I thank Hubert Bonin for his management, the Hennessy Company for its support and access to archives and the University of Bordeaux for accompanying me.
Notes
1. Duguid, “Developing the brand”, 405–441.
2. Lopes, Global Brands, 326.
3. Nelson, “Information and consumer behavior”, 311–329.
4. Karpik, L’économie des singularités.
5. Wilkins, “When and why brand?”, 15–40.
6. Bernard, Le Cognac à la conquête du monde.
7. Butel and Huetz de Lemps, Hennessy.
8. Morgan and Moss, “The marketing of Scotch whisky”, 116–131.
9. Simpson, “Too little regulation?”, 367–382.
10. Cabras and Higgins, “Beer, brewing, and business history.”.
11. Hansen, “Middlemen in the market for grain:”, 59–72.
12. According to Daniel Roche, “Economic historians work especially on the side of production and manufacturing, more rarely on the side of the trade”. Roche, La Culture des apparences, 16. See also Corley, “Marketing and business history”, 93–115.
13. Wilkins, “The neglected intangible asset”.
14. Fontaine, L’économie morale.
15. Hancock, Oceans of Wine; Trivelatto, The Familiarity of Strangers.
16. Greif, “Reputation and coalition in medieval trade”, 857–882.
17. Keynes, The Collected Writings. VIII.
18. Arrow, “Uncertainty”, 941–973.
19. Akerlof, “The market for ‘lemons’”, 488–500.
20. Karpik, “Dispositifs de confiance et engagements crédibles”, 527–550.
21. Lopes and Duguid, “Introduction”.
22. Higgins, “Trademarks and infringement in Britain”, 103.
23. “When the separation between producer and buyer occurs, the name and reputation become intangible property rights that require legal support.” Wilkins, “The neglected intangible asset”, 68.
24. Their tendency to speculate made it all the more important that they were able to keep large stocks of brandy in huge warehouses. They were able to weigh on the exchanges and to play a significant role in the negotiations on prices.
25. The Wholesale and Retail Wine & Spirit Merchant’s Companion written by Joseph, Hartley, first published in 1835 (republished in 1839) is particularly revealing of the taste of spirit trade intermediaries for mixing and adulterating the products they received.
26. Eaton, “Warehouses and warehouse districts”, 17–26; Rose, Firms, Networks and Business Values, 72–73.
27. Simpson, The Emergence of a World Industry, 1840–1914, 92.
28. Shaw, Wine, the Vine and the Cellar.
29. Mui and Mui, Shops and Shopkeeping; Cox, The Complete Tradesman.
30. Mitchell, Tradition and Innovation.
31. Hartley, The Wholesale, 65–66.
32. Simpson, The Emergence.
33. Porter and Livesay, Merchants and Manufacturers, 3.
34. Wenger, A Country Storekeeper in Pennsylvania.; Stobart, Sugar & Spice; Atherton, The Frontier; Willan, An Eighteenth-Century Shopkeeper.
35. Paul Duguid noted that the profession of wines and spirits merchant, at least during the first half of the nineteenth century, was described as “the most rotten set in London”.
36. Jefferys, Retail Trading in Britain.
37. Davis, A History of Shopping.
38. Stanziani, Rules of Exchange.
39. Chandler, Scale and Scope.
40. Stanziani, Rules of Exchange, 152.
41. Duguid, “French connections”, 3–37.
42. “We are quite disposed to register our labels both here & in England but we are at a loss how to fill up the paper you have sent us.” Hennessy Archives, Cognac, Historical collection, Register of letters “Twiss & Brownings”, 1 March 1861.
43. Bently, “The making of modern trade marks law”; Higgins, “Forgotten heroes”, 261–285; Mercer, “A mark of distinction”, 17–42.
44. Beltran, Chauveau and Galvez-Behar, Des brevets et des marques.
45. Lopes and Casson, “Brand protection”, 13.
46. Ibid., 14.
47. In 1849, Hennessy signals to its English agent Twiss & Browning: “You have sent us an order for 50 cases of New Brandy (1848) we have hitherto objected to ship such young Brandies in bottle as they can really do us no credit.” (8 September 1849).
48. “By this act, registration conferred upon the proprietor ‘prima facie’ evidence of his right to the exclusive use of such trade mark.” (Higgins, “Trademarks and infringement in Britain, c.1875–c.1900”, 106).
49. Wine Trade Review, 18 February 1865, cited by Duguid, “Developing the brand”, 411.
50. Cited by Simpson, “Selling to reluctant drinkers: the British wine market, 1860–1914”, 80–108.
51. The Newsletter: An Australian Paper for Australian People, Sydney, 14 December 1907.
52. Akehurst and Alexander, The Emergence; Tamilia. “History of channels of distribution”.
53. Hennessy Archives, Historical Collection, Register of letters “Twiss & Brownings”, 22 June 1859.
54. Ibid., 29 October 1864.
55. Ibid., 28 March 1864.
56. Laird, Advertising Progress.
57. Brown, Victorian News and Newspapers, 15.
58. Taylor, “Privacy, publicity, and reputation”, 679–701.
59. Jefferys, Retail Trading in Britain, 38.
60. Yamey, “The origins”, 522–565.
61. Strasser, Satisfaction Guaranteed, 269.
62. Higgins and Verma, “The business of protection”.
63. Duguid, “Developing the brand”, 424.
64. Edition of August 1869. Cited by James, Simpson, The Emergence of a World Industry, 99.
65. Harding, “‘Competition is useless’”, 44–67.
66. Briggs, Wine for Sale.
67. Alexander, “The study”; Shaw, The Evolution of Retail Systems, c. 1800–1914.
68. Much, “Public houses”, 1–19.
69. British Library, London, Ridley & Co.’s Monthly Wine and Spirit Trade Circular, January 1870.
70. Unwin, Wine and the Vine.
71. Duguid, “Preface: In vino veritas?”.
72. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise in Britain.
73. Cochoy, Une histoire du marketing.
74. Strasser, Satisfaction Guaranteed, 20.
75. Koehn, Brand New; Tedlow, New and Improved.