Piper Jaffray & Co. Senior Retail Analyst Jeff Klinefelter and a collaborative team of other senior research analysts recently released the results of the ninth bi-annual proprietary research survey on teen spending habits and retail brand perception, titled “Taking Stock With Teens.” Klinefelter and team conducted mall research field trips with approximately 600 teens from 11 high schools in eight states across the country and one province of Canada. Additionally, the team surveyed another 1,400 students in 47 states and Canada through an online survey. Overall, the survey shows that total fashion spending remained flat year-over-year.
“Our ‘discretionary spending recovery’ thesis remains intact as our new supplemental online survey points to significantly higher spending on fashion products for an average household income of $72,000 sample, versus $44,000 sample,” said Klinefelter in the press release. “Additionally, current spending trends on fashion-related products remains on par with strong performance during Spring 2004, however frequency characteristics point to acceleration as we move through 2005.”
Klinefelter and team surveyed teens on their favorite places to shop as well as their spending habits. Based on their responses, Hollister, a concept of Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF, Outperform, $58.79) took the top spot as the most frequent overall destination capturing 12 percent of mind share votes, followed by Abercrombie & Fitch with 10 percent mind share after leading the ranking for seven surveys in a row. In third place is Pacific Sunwear of California (PSUN, Outperform, $26.74), followed by American Eagle (AEOS, Outperform, $29.77) in fourth place and d.e.m.o, a concept of Pacific Sunwear, in fifth.
“Overall, mind share in terms of preferred brands seems to be coalescing at the top, continuing a trends we first saw in the fall 2004 survey,” said Klinefelter in the press release. “This spring, the top three choices garnered 32 percent of the votes, compared to 33 percent in the fall 2004 survey and 25 percent last spring.”
The students were also surveyed on video game products and other consumer electronics. Results of the survey point out that video games remain a leading form of entertainment with 76 percent of student households having at least one video game platform and 49 percent of students stating that they are occasional game players (playing at least monthly). In addition, 51 percent of student households own Sony’s PS2, 32 percent own Microsoft’s Xbox, 18 percent own Nintendo’s GameCube and 34 percent own a GameBoy System (38 percent own two consoles).
In addition to video game products, the students were surveyed about portable digital audio players. The survey results show an accelerating interest among teens for digital audio players. Of the students surveyed, 41 percent indicated that they own a portable digital audio player and those expecting to purchase one went from 46 percent in fall 2004 to 59 percent in the spring 2005 survey. Apple’s (AAPL, Outperform, $43.56) iPod ownership among high school students has risen materially. In the fall 2004 survey, 40 percent owned an iPod, while in this spring’s survey, 56 percent own an iPod.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Apple’s iPod and iTunes show big leads in teen marketshare – April 06, 2005
[UPDATE: 10:58pm – rewrote headline]