Report: Young Consumers Shift Brand Loyalty in College Years

Nike is still clearly the brand to beat among younger consumers, but support for the brand wanes as teens move into their college years and then builds again as they age. Conversely, Adidas picks up steam with the college and post-college consumer.

Those are just two key findings in the recently released 2010 Brand Strength Report – Young Consumer Edition produced by The SportsOneSource Group.  The report, a subset of the broader 2010 Brand Strength Report, looks into the purchasing and brand preference patterns of consumers between the ages of 13 and 24. This age group represents a significant portion of sales for many of the brands measured in the 2010 Brand Strength Report, which in turn makes their responses highly valuable. 

It should be no surprise that Nike was the strongest brand in the minds of a young consumer. But Nike’s BSI of 742.8 among these younger consumers was just a few points higher than the brand’s still-impressive index among the entire respondent population.  While Nike finished with a BSI score well over 700 points overall, both genders, and the 13-17 yr olds, it dropped to 683 among the 18-24 year old group. Adidas has a solid hold on the second spot finishing nearly 100 points higher than Under Armour in the #3 spot.

Over 1,000 young consumers in the 13- to 24-year-old age group were surveyed as part of the 2010 Brand Strength Report, which provides an accurate look into how this specific age group feels about brands and how they spend their money. 

The Brand Strength Index, which was developed in early 2009 by The SportsOneSource Group, was used as a way to determine brands’ relative strength in the minds of the consumer.  The Brand Strength Index is just one component of the SportsOneSource 2010 Brand Strength Report. The Brand Strength Report is available now and is available in various formats, including report segments based on age, race, gender and household income.  Specific Brand Strength Index reports have been developed for 72 brands.

The SportsOneSource Brand Strength survey was conducted in late November utilizing a third-party Internet panel provider.  A total of 4,003 responses were collected providing information on over 70 brands.  Respondents were age 13 and up.  SportsOneSource made every effort to control the demographics to best represent the U.S. population, but Internet surveys generally tend to skew to older, more Caucasian, better educated and higher income households.

The results of the survey can be projected to the U.S. population with a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percentage points.

To find out more about the report or to reserve your copy, contact The SportsOneSource Group at 704.987.3450  or e-mail to: research@SportsOneSource.com