Cramer breaks down Piper Sandler’s teen survey

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday broke down the semi-annual “Taking Stock with Teens” survey from analysts at Piper Sandler and said investors should think about what teenage consumers like.

“This is the most notoriously fickle demographic out there,” Cramer said, adding that he’s too old to know exactly what teenagers are thinking. “That’s what makes this survey so essential, indispensable even, to anyone who’s thinking about owning anything in a consumer-facing business, whether we’re talking footwear, apparel, food, entertainment. Every business wants to own the teenage cohort, because there’s a chance you can win these younger customers over for life, because our preferences tend to fossilize as we get older.”

The report surveyed more than 9,000 teenagers from 49 states with an average age of 15.7, Piper Sandler said. The company’s analysts asked about teenagers’ favorite brands in a number of sectors, including apparel, snacks, cosmetics and social media platforms.

Nike won teens’ favorite spot in both apparel and footwear for the 13th straight year, and the company’s site came in as the third most popular e-commerce site, the report said. Amazon and online fast fashion retailer SHEIN took the top spots for e-commerce, with 59% of upper income teens listing Amazon as their favorite, up from 57% in the spring and 52% last fall, the report found.

The survey also showed that cosmetic spending is at its highest level since 2019 among female teenagers, with e.l.f as their favorite brand. Frito-Lay parent PepsiCo was teens’ favorite snacking company, with its products Lays, Doritos and Cheetos in the top five favorite snack category, the report said.

Tik-Tok and Meta-owned Instagram were some of participants’ favorite social media platforms. And not surprisingly, Apple also saw huge success with the demographic, with the survey finding a whopping 87% of teens owned the iPhone.

“There’s a lot in this survey to tell you what teens like, and, like it or not, teenagers are the future,” Cramer said. “Let’s see if the results this earnings season confirm what we saw in the survey.”

Correction: Jim Cramer broke down the Piper Sandler teen survey on Wednesday. An earlier version misstated the day.

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