In the manufacturing sector, companies are leveraging technology to gain competitive advantage. In the service sector, supply chain management and merchandizing are in sharp focus, while in the knowledge management domain, data mining and data warehousing continue to dominate knowledge-based units. The bottom line is that irrespective of the nature of business, to survive in this market, a company has to provide excellent products or services at the most competitive rates. The changing business scenario and the infallibility of some basic truths about marketing management and financial management have brought into sharp focus the critical need of marketing finance interface for competitive growth. The Cover Story focuses on the areas of marketing finance interface, like financial aspects of brand management, strategic cost management, cost analysis in marketing decisions, pricing policies and decisions, appraisal and control of marketing performance, etc.

Marketing functions by and large lie outside the organization. On the one side there is the market and on the other there is the organization. In the marketplace there are positive customers, negative customers, neutral potential customers and non-customers. Markets are always in a state of flux. They are also continuously affected by economic, political, and social changes. Such changes are again of a very complex and interdependent nature. All such changes and forces and interactions at the marketplace are transmitted to the organization through one important function of marketing market research. Based on such factors and forces the organization takes certain decisions which are again reflected in the marketplace.

The finance function by its very nature is internal to the organization. An important part of the finance function, i.e., statutory accounting is responsible to outsiders, viz., shareholders, government authorities, auditors, etc. But the other functions under finance do not owe any allegiance to outsiders and the degree of dependence too is little. Financial management, particularly to the extent it relates to making available financial resources from outside, is influenced rather widely by external factors, especially capital market situations. But this influence is significantly different both in character and quality from the influence that market forces constantly exert on the marketing functions.

Marketing Mastermind Magazine, Marketing Finance Interface, Organizational Integration, Organizational Effectiveness, Manufacturing Sectors, Supply Chain Management, Data Warehousing, Data Mining, Financial Management, Marketing Management, Strategic Cost Management, Dynamic Marketing, Marketing Operations, Brand Risk Analysis.