Well there are lies, dam lies and statistics/trends/fads... Different strokes for different folk I guess, the most important thing is to eat life and lots of it

Ah yes, balance.... Balance requires awareness and awareness requires listening. All of the channels you list are immensely powerful when used relevantly, and how can we adudicate on relevance? Listening to our customers, they will tell us clearly.

Funny I almost used the lies and damn lies quote as a follow up to this one -- and as Mark says its all about listening

The funny thing about research and statistics is that they can easily be manipulated to say whatever you need them to. In the right demographic, any book is a best-seller, any disease is the number one killer, any brand is the favorite, and any form of media is preferred. I was in debate in high school - talk about opening one's eyes to "compelling proof" for each side of every arguement. For any piece of evidence that clearly shut down an opponent's position, they had a card that could counter the argument. While research is valuable, we as consumers shouldn't let statistics determine how we choose to take in the world. And we as advertisers can't afford to shut down the ways we think about how we reach consumers.