Analyzing the Marketing Information System of Thomas Cook Ltd. Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Marketing Information System (MIS) employed by Thomas Cook Ltd., a prominent international travel and tourism company. It explores the significance of MIS in gathering, analyzing, and disseminating crucial marketing information. The report highlights how Thomas Cook Ltd. leverages its MIS to understand customer needs, identify market trends, and gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. The report also discusses the effectiveness of MIS in simplifying processes, integrating departments, and improving decision-making. Furthermore, it examines how MIS facilitates global operations, enhances communication, and supports strategic planning within the organization. The report concludes by emphasizing the positive impact of MIS on Thomas Cook Ltd.'s revenue generation, customer base, and overall market presence. The report also focuses on how MIS helps in predicting future trends in the market and helps the company in making informed decisions.

MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Importance of marketing information system and its effectiveness ...........................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is basically identifying, providing and promoting the required goods and services to
the customers satisfactorily and profitably. MIS does this by collecting the information; then
analysing it and stores it supplying to the management as and when required by them.
Thomas Cook Ltd. is an international travel and tourism company spread in 21 countries over 4
continents and is also integrated with providing financial services in travel industry.
This report highlights assistance of Marketing Information System in Thomas Cook Ltd. in
gathering information, communicating it and marketing of services offered. It also shows the
competitive advantage that company can gain over its competitors by successful implementation
of MIS in the company.
MAIN BODY
Importance of marketing information system and its effectiveness
A Marketing Information System is a designed computer system regularly collecting all the
data relevant to marketing; interpreting and sorting it and then finally providing it to managers as
and when they require the information based on their need and assist them in taking decisions.
Thomas Cook Ltd. has an excellent MIS which helps them in formulating strategies and decision
making by segregating all the information and providing relevant information. Their excellent
MIS helps them to be a step ahead of their competitors and hence generate profits.
Importance of MIS:-
Today, to ascertain rapidly changing needs of the customers and to determine what they
specifically want; having MIS in an organisation is consequential. It helps the management in
understanding the market trends and the dynamic environment. A strong MIS guides the
management in decision making and tapping the market by being the first one to launch the
products and services which the consumer requires.
Since MIS forewarns the management about changing trends, it helps in avoiding crisis and
keeps the organisation afloat by giving proper warning signals and guiding in decision making
which deflects the risk if successfully implemented (De Mooij, 2018).
If MIS monitors the market intelligently, it can analyse the activities of the competitors and
decipher if they are going to adopt some big strategies or their prospective launches in near
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future. This gives the organisation an upper hand in the competitive environment (Importance of
Marketing information system, 2013).
MIS also eliminates the chances of any fraudulent activities being carried out in the organisation
since the automation of processes removes the power from employees' hand and it regularly
verifies all the transactions taking place also eliminating chances of error.
It integrates all the activities carried out in marketing department and formulates strategic plans
thus making an organisation efficient (cost reduction) as well as effective (time reduction).
Benefits of MIS to Thomas Cook Ltd.:-
The travel and tourism industry requires a very careful and dedicated approach for their
customers. Here, MIS maintains a detailed record of all the visitors; their activities; their tastes
and preferences; their stay experience etc. This helps the management of Thomas Cook in
identifying that which services offered by them are best and worst and where improvement can
be made.
Thomas Cook Ltd. practices destination and weather focused marketing through MIS by
developing user friendly online sites which attracts the customers thus generating revenue for the
company and also increases the publicity(Bowie and et.al., 2016).
MIS has encouraged decentralization in management of Thomas Cook Ltd. and financial
planning has been made easier. MIS points out which department needs to be managed or which
inventory to be replenished etc. Therefore, the decision making has been made quicker as
supervisors can act on their decisions immediately.
It also minimizes the information overload by segregating it and providing only that information
which the user seeks. MIS organizes all this information and assists the management of Thomas
Cook Ltd. to effectively carry out business.
MIS also stores all the employee related data like their performance, turnover rate, preference
points etc. which assists the management of Thomas Cook Ltd. in pointing out which employees
are an asset to the organisation and which are a burden. They also get notified of the performance
of an employee hence prompting management if they are giving sufficient rewards to the
deserving employees and keeping them satisfied (Inanc–Demir and Kozak, 2019).
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Since MIS helps Thomas Cook Ltd. in strategy formulation, this keeps the management aware of
all the present market trends so that the services of Thomas Cook Ltd. which they provide to
customers never become outdated.
MIS automates the process and is user-friendly, which facilitates the user and solves their
problem immediately at any given time. This benefits the customers of Thomas Cook Ltd.
immensely and increases the goodwill of the company since the technology is user friendly.
Effectiveness of MIS in Thomas Cook Ltd.:-
Successful implementation of MIS in Thomas Cook Ltd. has helped them in simplifying the
processes and activities carried out in the organisation. It has also integrated all the departments
of the organisation which has reduced the mismanagement and unnecessary wastage of
resources. This application of MIS has also reduced chaos and confusion amongst the employees
(Lovelock and Patterson, P., 2015).
Every department of Thomas Cook Ltd. has the MIS applicable as per their requirement which
assists them in their respective jobs like Document Management System for the Office
department; Digital Imaging System for electronic versions of the document in record
management department and Content Management System for maintaining website and content
available about Thomas Cook Ltd. on the internet.
MIS links all the internal as well as external information surrounding the tourism industry
through the process of environmental scanning. This helps the top management of Thomas Cook
Ltd. in taking crucial decisions for the company so that the company is always in a profit making
position (Kotler and et.al., 2017).
Implementation of MIS has integrated software as well as hardware technology present in
Thomas Cook Ltd. thus reducing their paper work and making work flexible. All the necessary
data is then provided as per the seeker's convenience.
Since Thomas Cook Ltd. is spread over 21 countries over 4 continents, MIS plays a very
important part in presenting a global front of the company by presenting a unified image
globally. MIS links all the branches together and segregates all the vast information into useful
data supplied when the requirement arises.
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The communication between various levels at Thomas Cook Ltd. is simplified by the help of
MIS and MIS assists them at individual levels also i.e. top management in decision making
process; middle level in successful execution of tasks and lower level in ensuring that they are
doing what the top level requires them to do.
The vast operating area of Thomas Cook Ltd. involves huge amount of transactions taking place
at different places simultaneously. MIS facilitates management by efficiently recording all the
transactions and thus removing errors as well as eliminating chances of any fraudulent activities
taking place.
The various types of MIS gives an overview of the present market scenario. This guides the
management at Thomas Cook Ltd. in deciding what new services or offers to launch; which
services have become redundant and which promotional tools to be used so that maximum
number of customers can be attracted increasing revenue generation (Katsikeas and et.al., 2016).
MIS also helps in formulating reports by presenting the required data. This report assists the
management of Thomas Cook Ltd. in evaluating and analysing the present financial and
economic condition of the company; its growth in past years; the trend that the company has
followed and in the comparison of the company's performance internally as well as externally
over a period.
The huge competitors of Thomas Cook Ltd. like TUI Group; Jet2.com are always coming up
with new strategies and techniques to tap the customers. MIS keeps the management aware of all
the activities that competitors are performing so that Thomas Cook Ltd. can launch better plans
and offers before them so that the company can gain advantage over its competitors.
MIS helps Thomas Cook Ltd. in targeting the best customer mix by identifying them and their
needs by practising niche marketing and building strong relationships with them.
MIS also successfully predicts the future trends which gives time for the management of Thomas
Cook Ltd. to prepare themselves beforehand and either make the situation profitable by
launching new offers and services or by avoiding the situation of crisis if it arises and minimize
losses of the company.
CONCLUSION
All the above research done on MIS shows how it is successfully impacting the functioning of
Thomas Cook Ltd. and assisting the management in making effective choices which are helping
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in revenue generation. MIS has also increased the customer base by implementing successful
marketing and promotional techniques which has presented a strong global front of Thomas
Cook Ltd. globally. MIS furthers assists the management of Thomas Cook Ltd. By facilitating
smooth functioning of organisation and also encourages smooth flow of communication between
various levels in the company as well as all the departments in the company. MIS also provides
competitive advantage to the company by keeping watch on the activities of its competitors and
analysing their activities to predict their future plans so that the management at Thomas Cook
Ltd. can be warned beforehand and the company does not suffer any losses at the cost of their
competitors.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bowie, D. and et.al., 2016.Hospitality marketing. Routledge.
De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
Inanc–Demir, M. and Kozak, M., 2019. Big Data and Its Supporting Elements: Implications for
Tourism and Hospitality Marketing. In Big Data and Innovation in Tourism, Travel, and
Hospitality (pp. 213-223). Springer. Singapore.
Katsikeas, C.S. and et.al., 2016. Assessing performance outcomes in marketing. Journal of
Marketing. 80(2). pp.1-20.
Kotler, P. and et.al., 2017. Marketing for hospitality and tourism.
Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015. Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Online
Importance of Marketing information system. 2013. [ONLINE] Available through:
<https://bbamantra.com/marketing-information-system/>
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