Television advertising may be more memorable, but coupons and print ads seem to do a better job of steering shoppers to stores, a recent national survey shows.

About 38 percent of shoppers surveyed by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association said that coupons influenced their decision about where to shop at the height of the 2005 holiday season, and roughly 35.2 percent were influenced by newspaper inserts.

Only about 26 percent cited television ads, however.

According to the poll, women are more likely then men to be influenced by coupons, newspaper inserts, in-store promotions and word-of-mouth. For men, the Internet, radio and ads in newspapers were much more important than for women.

Age also was a significant factor in determining responsiveness to various media. Consumers in the 18-to-24 age bracket were twice as likely as those older than 35 to be influenced by Internet advertising.

But newspapers and their inserts were nearly twice as important to older shoppers.

The survey findings could influence media buying decisions by retailers across the nation as the 2006 holiday shopping season heats up.

Good television advertising, as defined by shoppers, can influence where holiday shopping is done, with 14.2 percent of those surveyed saying that their favorite holiday advertisement encouraged them to buy from a specific store and 33 percent saying the ads would influence future buying habits.

Target was a runaway choice as the best TV advertiser last year, cited as the favorite by 22.5 percent of shoppers, and earning consistently high ratings across gender, economic and age groups.

Wal-Mart, which ranked second overall at 14.1 percent, had distinct highs and lows, appealing more to younger shoppers and those in the South and Midwest, and less to those over 45 or living on the West Coast.

Budweiser’s TV ads were the favorite of 7.5 percent of men, but just 2.5 percent of women. Best Buy had a similar gap (7.1 to 1.1), while more women than men cited Toys “R” Us (4.0 to 0.2) and JC Penney (3.6 to 1.4).