Fusion for Profit : How Marketing and Finance Can Work Together to Create Value

The corporate world is typically structured in silos. While this type of structure may facilitate the daily functioning of an organization, some complex issues require a bigger-picture view. Fusion Marketing focuses on how senior management can work together with key departments in the firm, especially marketing and finance, to bring strategy decisions to a more sophisticated and higher level by understanding how the firm''s marketing policies affect cash flows and hence the firm''s value. Sharan Jagpal, a well-known and highly respected researcher in marketing theory, covers in a comprehensive way how financial models can help firms make important decisions. Chapter topics range from how to compensate a sales force, to pricing and bundling strategy, to the measurement of advertising productivity and brand equity. Case studies from a variety of industries, including AT&T, Continental Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Home Depot, and General Electric, illustrate each of Jagpal''s points.

The corporate world is typically structured in silos. Managers urgently need to overcome this "silo" effect by fusing ideas across different functional areas in the firm. In Fusion for Profit, Sharan Jagpal, a well-known and highly respected multidisciplinary researcher and business consultant, explains in simple language using real-world examples how managers can use sophisticated concepts to fuse different functional areas in the firm, especially marketing and finance, to increase the firm''s value. The author provides novel solutions to a wide range of complex business problems ranging from choosing pricing and bundling strategies, to positioning and messaging strategies, to measuring brand equity, to measuring advertising productivity in a mixed media plan including Internet advertising, to compensating a multiproduct sales force, to measuring the potential gains and risks from mergers and acquisitions. These concepts are illustrated using case studies from a variety of firms in different industries, including AT&T, Coca-Cola, Continental Airlines, General Electric, Home Depot, Southwest Airlines, and Verizon.