Perhaps the most important result of Enron's decision was that switching those big customers to the utilities would sharply increase the amount of power that the State of California would be forced to buy on an emergency basis.
The European Central Bank is providing another gauge of European stress — the amount of sovereign bonds it is now buying on an almost daily basis.
One purpose is to wean marketers from their long-held view of broadcast network television as only a "cpm medium" -- that is, one to be bought on the basis of the lowest cost per thousand viewers achieved through tough, confrontational bargaining, which diminishes perceptions of its worth.
"Artists are bought on the basis of their importance, but also on the basis of their interactions with other works in the collection.
But in many cases, people bought on the basis of a personalised mailshot which recommended the bonds.
Ads are increasingly bought on the basis of an audience, for example 16- to 34-year-olds, not by seeking to place ads with a specific media owner.
With many now discovering their baby's sex before birth – and that being the only information they have about what their child might be like – products are bought on that basis.
In the past four years the share of American online advertising spending that is bought on the basis of performance has risen from 41% to 59%, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.The danger from friendsSearch engines and online banners are not nearly so good at making people aware of new products.
Disillusioned Yahoo! investors who bought on the basis of similar models found that the mere achivement of profit doesn't automatically open a gushing spigot.
Since a large proportion of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment will be bought on the basis of catalogue data, an analytical approach should be adopted to ensure correct selection.
"The key is not to invest too much up front," says Chris Woodland, head of telecoms, media and technology strategy at KPMG. "Hosting and bandwidth resources, for example, can be bought on a variable basis — according to uptake on a monthly basis.
