Industry facts and figures

How, why & where do teens shop

Teenagers are mall-crawlers who shop by browsing in stores, stopping to buy when the colour, cut or style of a pair of shoes or item of clothing catches their eye. They are not really particular about which store they buy from, they will buy from the store that stocks the item they like. These messages came through strongly in the more than 1000 responses received in the SA Sports Trader Teen Brand Survey (see box).

Therefore, if a brand wishes to appeal to 15-17 year olds, it must make sure that it is available in retail stores. This seems to be the factor that is most likely to determine if teens will buy a shoe or item of clothing:

» Nearly half (48%) of the respondents say they buy items because they saw it while browsing in stores — the reason why they would buy shoes or clothing;
» By far the highest number of respondents (44%) say they buy from any store, which also indicates a pattern of impulse buying: seeing an item, wanting it and then buying. They do not necessarily go to a specific store because they like the store as such — although it is interesting that the second highest number of respondents (28%) shop at sport stores, many more than those that shop at exclusive boutiques (8%).
» This would, however, imply that the location of a store is very important if you want to catch the teenage trade. Retailers situated in malls or shopping centres where teenagers are likely to hang out, will obviously benefit.
» More than half (55%) say they prefer a footwear or clothing brand because of the cut, style or colour of its products, which also indicates that visual appeal, rather than other external factors, influence their brand preferences.

Brand loyalty does play a significant role — but it is not as important to teens as one would expect. Less than 40% said that they would buy shoes or clothing with a specific brand name because I trust the brand name. There is 9% difference between the number who browse and buy, and the number who buy because they want a specific brand.

Consumer adverts also play a far lesser role in convincing teens to buy a brand than retail availability — only 17% said that they buy an item because they saw it advertised.

They certainly do NOT rush out to buy a brand because a pop, movie or sport star wears it. Only 7% say they will go and buy an item of clothing or shoes brand because it is worn/endorsed by a star, and only 5% say that a certain brand is their favourite because it is endorsed by a favourite movie, pop or sport star.

Nor are their friends a major influence on whether they buy a specific shoe or clothing item (only 7%). And the factor they are least likely to consider when deciding to buy or not, is whether an item is Made in SA.

Apart from the visual appeal (style, colour etc), comfort is the next most important consideration (for 31%) when they choose a clothing or footwear brand — with psychological boosting factors like Makes you feel good/cool (21%) and expensive brand as status symbol (4%) playing a far lesser role in brand choices.

Good value for money is also a low priority (17%) — probably because the parents of 75% of the respondents pay for their clothes and only 14% buy clothes from money they earned. Less than a third (27%) buy clothes or shoes from their pocket money, or a clothing allowance.

The fact that a surprisingly low number of respondents (2%) say they buy from flea markets is good news for retailers and everyone concerned about counterfeit products.

While most (44%) do not seem to care, or notice, in which kind of store they buy their clothes, a relatively high number (28%) say they buy from sport stores — which correlates with the fact that sportswear and surfing brands feature so strong amongst the top twenty brands owned and aspired to.

Adidas is not only the most recognised brand, it is also owned by most respondents and most respondents (128) said it was their #1 favourite brand.

It would be interesting to determine in a further study whether the teens purchase clothes and shoes from sports stores because they have a sport or performance link (e.g. adidas could be seen as a soccer brand), or because they simply like the style and cut of sports brands.

The fact that a top performance running shoe brand like Asics, for instance, is only recognised by 30% of the respondents and owned by 8%, seem to indicate that performance does not play a major role in the choice of apparel.

In fact, all sports brands where performance features play the most important role, rather than the fashion/lifestyle aspects, tend to be less recognisable, or less likely to be owned, than brands that are also known for their fashion appeal.

One could, therefore, surmise that the majority of the teens who shop at sport stores do so because they know they will find the cut, style or brand that they like, rather than because they are interested in the performance features of the ranges.

If sport retailers are situated in areas where teenagers browse, they would therefore benefit from also stocking the lifestyle/athleisure ranges from sports brands.

It is interesting that the number of respondents who recognise a brand, corresponds closely with the number who own the brand. With the exception of Volcom and Soviet, the top 20 most recognised brands are also the top 20 most owned brands. Further down the list, the next twenty brands recognised by the respondents are also owned by them, and so on, to the next twenty, etc.

The respondents were given a list of 88 shoe and clothing brands from which to select the ones they recognise, or own — fashion, sportswear, surfing, skate, outdoor, in-store brands, you name it, were all ranked alphabetically. They could also add the names we missed.

One would expect that brands like adidas, Nike, Reebok, Billabong etc. would be recognised by 100% of the respondents ... which is not the case.

Five of the top twenty brands recognised and owned have a sporting heritage — with adidas topping both lists and Nike and Billabong jockeying for second place. A sports brand like Reebok is also more frequently recognised than surf brands like Quiksilver, Hang Ten, Lizzard, O’Neill etc. or fashion brands like Diesel, Levi or Soviet.

Surf brands

Surf brands are exceptionally well represented in the top 20 brands owned and recognised — ten of the top twenty brands recognised and owned are surfing brands. More respondents, for instance, own BadBoy/Girl than brands like Reebok, Diesel, Levi or Puma.

An in-house (Ackermanns) surf brand likeHang Ten is not only recognised by more teens than Puma or Levi, it is also owned by more than Quiksilver, BadBoy/Girl, Island Style and Reebok.

In a follow-up article we will give a breakdown of the geographical areas where these brands were most popular.

Fashion/lifestyle brands like Diesel, Levi, Soviet and Jockey are well recognised and are amongst the top twenty brands owned by the respondents — but the overwhelming support expressed for Diesel and Levi in previous, smaller Sports Trader surveys amongst predominantly urban-based teens, is diluted in this bigger, more representative sample.

On the other hand, house brands (brands only available from one retailer) like Hang Ten and the Mr. Price brand, Red, which hardly featured in the previous surveys, are amongst the top five brands owned and also have a very high recognition rate.

Red is the brand owned by the fourth highest number of respondents — just behind adidas, Billabong and Nike. And it is followed by Hang Ten, which would indicate that price plays a role when buying brands.

Other retailers’ exclusive brands, however, are recognised and owned by a far smaller number of the respondents. The other Mr Price brand, River Trader, is recognised by 32% and owned by 16%, Edgars’ Kelso brand is recognised by 26% and owned by 9% and the Cape Union Mart brand K-Way is recognised by 15% and owned by 4% ... with brands like Body Logic, Columbia, Free2BU and YDE hardly featuring.

Aspirational brands

When asked to name the six brands they would choose if given the option to wear any brands they liked, the picture changed considerably.

Adidas is the brand that most respondents chose as their #1 favourite (13%), followed by Billabong (12%), but Puma (6%) moves into the #3 slot, followed by Nike (5%) and surf brand Roxy (5%).

Affordable brands owned by a large number of respondents, like Hang Ten and Red, are not amongst the top twenty most wanted brands. But, they would love to own brands like Dolce & Gabana and Gucci ... if they could afford them. Which seems to indicate that price does play a role in which brands they buy. Only 6% of the respondents actually own a Gucci item and 2% have Dolce & Gabana in their cupboards.

Although Sissy Boy and Converse are only owned by 172 (17%) and 104 (10%) of the respondents respectively, these brands inspire very strong loyalty, as they are amongst the top twenty #1 favourite brands.

Six favourite brands

When comparing all brands selected as one of the six that the respondents would most like to wear, surf brands still feature strong in the top 20 (Billabong topping the list). Surf brands like Hang Ten and O’Neill have, however, dropped out of the top 20.

Fashion brands make a much stronger showing in the top twenty, compared to the number of respondents who own or recognise them. Eight fashion brands feature in the top twenty most wanted brands — and most of them are priced at the high end of the market (e.g. Calvin Klein, Gucci)

The fact that only sports brands that extensively market lifestyle ranges like adidas, Nike and Puma, feature in the top twenty aspirational brands, seem to support the premise that most respondents like a fashionable look, but buy other sportswear brands because they are more accessible or affordable.

This would tie in with the buying habits indicated: it is unlikely that a group of teenagers would feel comfortable browsing in a store selling Gucci — but they would look at an advert and say I wish. They would therefore like the brand, but would hardly buy it.

Most of the first choice brands remain under the top 20 selected. Only Dolce & Gabana and Converse are replaced by Calvin Klein.

About a third of the respondents say that Levi and Diesel are amongst their favourite brands — but about the same number of respondents already own these brands.

This analysis is based on feedback from all 1 014 of the Grade 10 (15-17 year old) respondents, irrespective of the area they come from (urban/rural; coastal/inland), their language group or gender.

In the forthcoming issues of Sports Trader we shall be taking a closer look at how the above demographics influence their brand choices or shopping habits.