With all the exciting “new” things you have to include in your marketing plan – Social Media, Mobile, SEM – it’s easy to lose site of your old friends like TV, Direct Mail, and Print.

Don’t.

It’s important to understand that each piece has its place in the marketing mix. A new study commissioned by Google shows that today’s average shopper uses 10.4 information sources to make a purchase decision (that’s nearly double what it was a year ago) and indicates where on the purchase decision continuum each influencing factor can come into play.

The study divides those influencing factors into three areas:

• The Stimulus – Marketing that sparks consumer awareness of a product or service
• The Zero Moment of Truth – Fact finding and research consumers conduct before purchasing
• The Final Moment of Truth – What a consumer looks at during the final moment before purchase, usually in a retail store

Of course, traditional advertising falls mostly into the Stimulus category – the top 3 choices being, in order, TV, Direct Mail, and Newsprint. And yes, this study included 18-34 year olds. Online Search remains the top source for shoppers in the research phase. And Product Packaging is the biggest in-store influencer.

Marketers are presented with a very difficult task – orchestrating the perfect flow of information along their target audience’s purchase decision continuum. The ones who do it right will grab and keep the attention of consumers better than their competitors. And with the dismal consumer spending reports we keep hearing about, getting the mix wrong is simply not an option.