Who better to know what’s trending than teenagers? Piper Sandler has released the spring edition of its semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens Survey” with solid results for several names in its portfolio. We love looking at this report, which looks at a broad demographic of Gen Z (roughly defined as people between the ages of 11 and 26). In fact, the median age of the 6,020 teens surveyed in 47 states was 16.1 years. The gender breakdown was 54% male, 44% female, and 2% non-binary. Approximately 38% said they were employed part-time. The average household income of respondents was $66,280. Research shows that young shoppers are more likely to try new things and stick with brands that they personally or ideologically identify with or have had positive experiences with. So it’s not just about selling teenagers because it’s good for the company’s current quarter, it’s also about gaining mindshare within the group and increasing the lifetime value of these customers. Here, we take a closer look at Piper’s teen research and how six club names catered to young consumers: Metaplatform, Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, Estée Lauder, and Foot Locker. The biggest winner here on the internet was Meta-His platform. Instagram remains a staple for her teens, with 80% of respondents using the app. That doesn’t change. Instagram’s lead as the “most used app” increased by 8 percentage points, up from 5 percentage points in Piper’s fall survey. About 30% of teens said Instagram is their favorite app. Not only is this a 7 percentage point increase compared to the decline data, but it’s also the largest increase since TikTok was added to the study. TikTok remains the top app among teenagers despite facing calls from the US to ban the short-form video platform owned by China’s ByteDance. However, it has lost some ground. Instagram has replaced Snap’s Snapchat as the second-most popular platform among teens. At Facebook, thanks to Meta’s investments in artificial intelligence, engagement has increased and his monthly usage rate has increased to 32%, the highest level in four years. Another advantage, perhaps not surprisingly, is that Amazon remains the top retailer among high-income teenagers. Support among teens overall is even stronger than in the past, with 61% of respondents highlighting the platform as their go-to platform, up from 59% in the fall and 57% last spring. Apple also remains the top brand for teens, with 85% of respondents saying they own an iPhone and 86% planning to buy one. This is down slightly from 2021 levels, but still near all-time highs. Apple Watch remains his No. 1 watch brand among his teens. Restaurants and Coffee, Tea, and Beverages Starbucks is at the top no matter how you slice it, and is number one across all income levels, regardless of gender. That being said, coffee giants have the highest mindshare with high-income women. Compared to its competitors, Starbucks maintains a mindshare of 37% among all teens surveyed, which is not close but well above the 7% mindshare held by runner-up Dunkin Donuts. There is. Analysts revised the study slightly this year, separating out the coffee, tea and beverage categories from what was previously categorized simply as restaurants. Prior to this update, analysts said, “Starbucks is consistently ranked as a top 5 restaurant, typically ranking 2nd or 3rd. “This further highlights Starbucks’ superiority as an option.” They added that, in their view, the Starbucks brand remains “an important social currency for teens.” This is especially important given recent boycott calls and protests over Starbucks’ stance on the Israel-Hamas war. In our view, the headwinds from these actions are temporary and the resulting decline in stock price supports the idea that this is a buying opportunity. Starbucks said in December that its position on the Middle East conflict remains unchanged, saying it “represents humanity.” The company added that it condemns “violence, loss of innocent life, and all forms of hate and weaponized speech.” Beauty The survey bodes well for beauty retailers, with Piper analysts noting that industry spending has reached its highest level since 2018. The 8% increase in wallet share was widespread, with growth across all categories. While cosmetics held the highest share of beauty spending, fragrances were the fastest growing, increasing 23% year over year. Elf Beauty is still her No. 1 brand among his teenagers. For Estée Lauder, the results were a bit more neutral, with strength seen in skincare brand The Her Ordinary, which maintained its No. 2 spot. However, that was offset by Clinique, which dropped a few places, dropping him two spots to No. 2. 10. Too Faced also gained some ground, but MAC lost some market share. While spending trends in beauty are encouraging, we remain mindful that demand from Asia is what matters most when it comes to Estée Lauder’s share price. Global Lifestyle Brands, Athletics, Shoes Here, Foot Locker is losing mindshare among her teens, dropping from No. 10 last spring to No. 12, and in the fall to No. 9. You can see that it has fallen. The winner of Foot Locker’s struggle appears to be Dick’s Sporting Goods. That said, we think other results support Foot Locker management’s efforts to focus on brands other than Nike as it attempts to turn around the retailer. Piper analysts said Nike maintained its No. 1 spot in “overall apparel, sports apparel, footwear, and sports shoes.” However, they noted that Nike is currently “beginning to see weakness in overall brand mindshare.” At Nike’s expense, brands such as Hoka, which ranks No. 3 in sports shoes under running specialty retailer Decker’s Outdoor, and On Running, which ranks No. 9 in overall footwear, appear to be gaining mindshare. Overall, spending on footwear fell by 1% annually. This is because his 3% decline in the “average income” cohort was only partially offset by the 5% annual increase in the “high income” cohort. Political and Social Issues The top three most important political and social issues remained unchanged from the fall results, with the environment in first place, followed by inflation and racial equality. This is even more noteworthy now that his highly competitive 2024 presidential election is just around the corner. Because while we would like to see corporations stay out of the social and political sphere due to the impossible task of satisfying everyone, what stance they take, or don’t take, is a huge concern for teenagers. This will impact mindshare among teenagers and demand from this key demographic. (The Jim Cramer Charitable Trust is long META, AMZN, AAPL, SBUX, EL, FL. See here for a complete list of stocks.) As a subscriber to Jim Cramer’s CNBC Investment Club, Receive trade alerts before Jim Cramer. Make a deal. After Jim sends a trade alert, he waits 45 minutes before buying or selling stocks in a charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim talks about a stock on his CNBC TV, he will wait 72 hours before executing the trade after issuing a trade alert. The above investment club information is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, as well as our disclaimer. 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Who better to know what’s trending than teenagers?
