Yet each year it becomes more difficult to measure Christmas in anything other than retail sales.
It is difficult to measure from the Street how consumers are actually dealing with higher costs, however.
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These concepts may be elusive and difficult to measure, but their significance is far greater than IQ.
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Now, they're targeting something once thought to be far more difficult to measure: influence over fellow consumers.
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The political returns from investments in public health are difficult to measure, and take time to materialise.
It is difficult to measure Ecompanies' financial success, if any, given how tight-lipped the incubator is about numbers.
The NFL is difficult to measure simply because the season is so short compared to other pro sports.
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Like other intangible corporate assets, such as brand or employee loyalty, they are difficult to measure and quantify.
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It is difficult to measure how long it will take people living in the quake zone to recover.
Although outpatient treatment is modestly correlated with reduced recidivism, the efficacy of institution-based treatment has proved difficult to measure.
It has also claimed it will be difficult to measure children's acquisition of one of the key requirements - confidence.
"It is very difficult to measure pain as it is subjective but in all these cases it is a painful injury, " he said.
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We also took a detailed look at how the leading luxury brands are performing, in areas that are more difficult to measure than sales.
It is difficult to measure the benefits of these programs, as many who sign up would be strong job candidates in their own right.
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And, while ROI on media stories and exposure can sometimes be difficult to measure, it continues to be an invaluable tool to reach key audiences.
Until this study, it was difficult to measure if what people say to each other about their brand experience has a direct effect on sales.
It can also be difficult to measure the value of communication.
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The actual impact on world growth is difficult to measure, says the IMF, but it is inevitable that the market declines will have some impact.
In the past, however, it was very difficult to measure engagement.
Defence output in this form is difficult to measure and value - what is the output of UK defence spending and is it a worthwhile investment?
Mr Spencer also says religion is "difficult to define and difficult to measure" - not unlike the feat of recording the lives of people in England and Wales.
It's complex because it's difficult to measure our taxable income and that is a problem regardless of whether or not you use progressive marginal rates or a single flat rate.
There is still and will continue to be quite a bit that B2B marketing functions do that is valuable, but still really difficult to measure in an attributable, CFO-acceptable way.
The volatility of the underlying asset can be difficult to measure or guess, especially since it is not always clear what it is if, for example, it is yet to be invented.
The pervasiveness of fake pharmaceuticals is difficult to measure.
"You have a combination of urban deprivation and then smaller towns and very rural areas - so the problems of homelessness are very different and can be difficult to measure, " explained Phil.
It is extremely difficult to measure weather consistently over decades and centuries, but the presence of sites reporting cooling is a symptom of the local variations that can creep in, according to researchers.
Indeed, as economies become ever more sophisticated, and real economic output ever more difficult to measure accurately, prudent makers of monetary policy will have to monitor an ever-broader set of indicators, equity prices included.
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