How to choose between all the Views hooks
The documentation View Hooks is clear about the purpose of every hook. It says about hook_views_post_execute(&amp;$view):


  This hook is called right after the execute process. The query has
  been executed, but the pre_render() phase has not yet happened for
  handlers.


And gives an example what you can do with this hook:

function hook_views_post_execute(&amp;$view) {
  // If there are more than 100 results, show a message that encourages the user
  // to change the filter settings.
  // (This action could be performed later in the execution process, but not
  // earlier.)
  if ($view-&gt;total_rows &gt; 100) {
    drupal_set_message(t('You have more than 100 hits. Use the filter settings to narrow down your list.'));
  }
}


At this point the database query was executed and you can do something with the result of the query, for example place this warning.

When you search in drupalcontrib, you find, that it is only used once:

drupal contrib search

Here it is used following the documentation. But no one in contrib used it for other things. You would be the first, with unpredictable results.

What you want to do is not specific to views, and because of that it is not in your list of view hooks. It is more connected to theming in drupal.

It is not advisable to put extensive code in the templates *.tpl.php, better put it into a preprocess function. Some examples for views:


hook_preprocess_views_view 
hook_preprocess_views_view_field
hook_preprocess_views_view_fields 
hook_preprocess_views_view_grid
hook_preprocess_views_view_table
hook_preprocess_views_view_unformatted
hook_preprocess_views_view_list


Use the preprocess hook, that correspondents with your views configuration.