Winners and losers from Piper Sandler’s latest survey of teenagers
Piper Sandler released on Wednesday its 48th semi-annual Taking Stock With Teens survey that took in more than 63 million data points to summarize teen preferences and spending trends. The firm said that teens self-reported spending at $2,361, a 4% increase compared to the spring survey.
Nike (NKE) and e.l.f. Beauty (ELF) were noted to continue to prove their wallet dominance as number one preferences in apparel and beauty. Nike (NKE) holds strong as the number one brand for all teens in both apparel and footwear, while New Balance improved to the number three spot and doubled its mindshare to 8% this fall. In terms of trends, Piper Sandler came away from the survey with more confidence in demand for On Holdings (ONON) and Deckers Outdoor (DECK) and more cautious on trends for Nike (NKE), Crocs (CROX), and Lululemon (LULU).
In apparel, Lululemon (LULU) kept its number three ranking, but lost four points of mindshare among upper income teens. In e-commerce, Amazon (AMZN) ranks number one again among upper income teens as the top shopping website.
The beauty category was noted to remain a high priority for teens. The fall survey showed the core beauty wallet reaching the highest levels seen since 2018 at $342, which could be a positive for Ulta Beauty (ULTA) and e.l.f. Beauty (ELF).
TikTok was reported as the favorite social app among teens, while Instagram (META) came in second and Snapchat (SNAP) ranked third. As expected, Netflix (NFLX) is the top choice for teens when it relates to daily video consumption. As for tech trends overall, Piper Sandler sees the results positive from the teen survey for Meta Platforms (META), Roblox (RBLX), Uber Technologies (UBER), Pinterest (PINS), and DoorDash (DASH). The breakdown of teen preferences was mixed for Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOG), while trending negative for Snap (SNAP).
Chick-fil-A continues to be the preferred chain restaurant among teens, while McDonald’s (MCD) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) ranked second and third. Teens prefer energy drinks over coffee and soda as their source of energy. Monster Beverage (MNST), Red Bull, Celsius (CELH) and Alani Nu held down the top four spots again, and collectively gained mindshare over Starbucks (SBUX).
As for snacking, Campbell Soup’s (CPB) Goldfish brand was still the top preferred brand in the survey for the seventh consecutive survey, with Lays (PEP) and Cheez-It (KLG) next. Piper Sandler noted that Goldfish appears to over-index with teens, which could be a leading indicator of future market share gains.