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When the future becomes less visible, when the fog descends, the forecasting horizon that you can trust comes closer and closer to your nose. In those circumstances being receptive to new directions becomes important. You need to take account of opportunities and threats and enhance an organisation's responsiveness. Igor Ansoff, quoted by Hill (1979) Amadeus set to soar on airline data sales Amadeus, the Spanish company that provides the technology behind airline flight bookings, is set to report results in stark contrast to the air- lines it serves, as it benefits from a 40 per cent share of a growing air travel market. On Friday, the group's full-year results are expected to show the effect of its expan- sion from flights into hotel reservations and the growth of its IT solutions business. Its share price has been charting a sustained upwards trajectory for much of the last five years, hitting an all-time high on Monday this week, for a market capitalisation of more 16bn. Amadeus makes most of its money through its global flight distribution system, which 'It's nothing new,' he said. "Travel is very much manages transactions between customers and about linked to economy ... This is coming more from Asia 120 of the world's airlines, many of which take place due to the size of the populations there," he adds. on online price comparison websites. Its growth is However, analysts suggest that much of Amadeus' therefore linked directly to an increase in global air value lies in what it can glean from the billions of trans- traffic. actions it processes: a perspective on the purchasing But despite Amadeus being recognised by habits of consumers. Bloomberg as the 11th largest software company in Improved personalisation - from the interrogation the world, and second in Europe, Luis Maroto, group of 'big data' - enables airlines to tailor their products chief executive, struck a cautious tone when asked and services to the personal whims of individual about his company's future prospects. consumers. WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CUSTOMERS 89 Amadeus has already begun to sell aggregated On this front, though, analysts have suggested the user information to airlines, revealing customers' tide may be turning in Amadeus' favour. Last sum- search habits. It provides a growing revenue stream mer, Ryanair, which had previously refused to place for the company. Mr Maroto has said this will form itself on global distribution platforms, relented and part of the business model in future. announced a partnership with the company. The company, however, faces certain challenges. Source: from Amadeus set to soar on airline bookings', Financial Times, It competes mainly with other global distribution 26/02/2015 (Halo, T). services, including US group Sabre and UK-based Travelport, both of which listed last year. 'Sabre and Travelport are trying to gain market share,' noted Gonzalo Sanz, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities. Discussion questions Airline companies have also attempted to provide 1 Where does most of Amadeus' value lie? their own IT infrastructure, which threatens to cut 2 What information de companies need to have Amadeus out of the loop and reduce the number of about their customers? transactions flowing through its system. Introduction Information is the raw material of decision making. Effective marketing decisions are based on sound information, the decisions themselves can be no better than the information on which they are based. Marketing research is concerned with the provision of information that can be used to reduce the level of uncertainty in decision making. Uncertainty can never be eliminated completely in marketing decisions, but by the careful application of tried and tested research techniques it can be reduced. The first section of this chapter looks at the information needed about customers to make effective marketing decisions. This is followed by a brief discussion of the various research techniques available for collecting data from the marketing environment. The use of these techniques in a typical marketing research study aimed at creatively segmenting a market and identifying current and potential product/service positions is then discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how marketing-related information can be arranged within an organisation and the development of marketing decision support systems (MDSS)