MINNEAPOLIS, April 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Piper Jaffray & Co. recently released the results of the 13th biannual proprietary research survey on teen spending habits and retail brand perceptions, titled "Taking Stock With Teens." The Piper Jaffray retail research team conducted mall research field trips in 11 cities in the United States and Canada surveying approximately 600 students. Piper Jaffray also partnered with the national DECA organization for the fifth time resulting in approximately 1,200 additional completed teen surveys. Overall, the survey shows that total fashion spending by students continues to moderate with total spending declining five percent from the spring tour in 2006. Spending was down 19 percent for young men, versus a modest six percent decline for young women year over year. Teenage consumers do, however, continue to spend a significant amount of money on the fashion category, which represents 44 percent of the total teen budget for the spring season, versus 41 percent in the fall 2006 season. The teens spending expectations are largely unchanged according to the survey versus fall 2006 "We believe spending on accessories looks to be weaker for young women and spending on shoes looks to be a strong for young men," said Jeff Klinefelter, senior retail research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "We think the industry is going through a gradual maturing of a strong denim-driven fashion cycle and anticipate the trend continuing over the next year or two." The team surveyed teens on their favorite places to shop and their spending habits. Based on their responses, Hollister, a concept of Abercrombie & Fitch, took the top spot as the most frequent overall destination for the fifth consecutive survey followed by American Eagle Outfitters and West Coast Brands, which includes Pacific Sunwear of California, Volcom, Hurley, Quiksilver, Billabong, Sun Diego, Roxy and Element in third. Abercrombie & Fitch was fourth followed by Forever 21 in fifth place. The students were also surveyed on video games. In total, 79 percent of teens own at least one video game platform and 58 percent answered that they are occasional game players, playing at least monthly. Additionally, 54 percent of teen households indicated they currently own or intend to purchase a next-generation console. In addition, students were asked about their buying habits of MP3 players and online music. Of those students who own a MP3 player, 82 percent indicated that they also own some form of iPod, which is up from 79 percent in fall 2006. For online music services, 89 percent of students indicated that they use iTunes, slightly down from 91 percent in fall 2006. In total, 84 percent of the students had heard of Apple's iPhone and 25 percent said they would pay $500 for the iPhone. For the third consecutive survey, specific questions about purchasing behaviors and preferences in the beauty categories of skin care and cosmetics were included. Overall spending on skin care and cosmetics is up seven percent from just six months ago and up 12 percent versus last year. MAC was the top-ranked preferred cosmetics brand among teen respondents this spring for the third consecutive survey. Students also were asked to rank their favorite home furnishing retailer or cataloger in the survey. For the fourth consecutive survey, IKEA was the top choice, with Williams-Sonoma's Pottery Barn and PB Teen coming in second. Students also completed survey questions on restaurants and spending on food this spring. The top three brands preferred by teens were Starbucks, Olive Garden and Applebee's. The team states the results reflect extensive store footprint of the concepts as well as the nationally recognized brand and broad consumer appeal. In total, 46 percent of the students responded that they will spend more money this year at restaurants than last year. Parents were also surveyed in a separate study. Parent spending on apparel for their teen was up seven percent year over year and up 21 percent from the fall 2006 survey. Parent spending on themselves is down four percent from fall 2006 and down 22 percent year over year. The results suggest that parents may be spending more money on their teen at the expense of themselves. About Piper Jaffray Piper Jaffray Companies is a leading, international middle market investment bank and institutional securities firm, serving the needs of middle market corporations, private equity groups, public entities, nonprofit clients and institutional investors. Founded in 1895, Piper Jaffray provides a comprehensive set of products and services, including equity and debt capital markets products; public finance services; mergers and acquisitions advisory services; high-yield and structured products; institutional equity and fixed-income sales and trading; and equity and high-yield research. With headquarters in Minneapolis, Piper Jaffray has 25 offices across the United States and international locations in London and Shanghai. Piper Jaffray & Co. is the firm's principal operating subsidiary. (NYSE: PJC; http://www.piperjaffray.com/ ) Since 1895. Member SIPC and NYSE. For additional disclosure information see http://www.piperjaffray.com/disclosures DATASOURCE: Piper Jaffray & Co. CONTACT: Susan Beatty, Public Relations and Communications of Piper Jaffray, +1-612-303-5680 Web site: http://www.piperjaffray.com/

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