the brand hotlist 2020 - nimbl

The Brand Hotlist 2020

Introducing the Brand Hotlist The UK’s youth economy is huge, and it is only getting bigger. Children’s spending power isbooming. According to the Office for National Statistics, 15-year olds spend £780 a year oneverything from clothes and computer games to food and books. If we factor in the moneyspent by all children, well, we’re talking about billions.

For brands, how children decide where to spend is as important as how often they chose todo so. Of course, most adults will have their tried and tested brands to which they alwaysreturn, but are children equally brand loyal? If so, at what age does that loyalty show itself?

This is exactly what we tried to find out in our inaugural nimbl Brand Hotlist. Examining everytransaction from a sample of 22,700 nimbl users, over a 12-month period, revealed childrenand young adults are a discerning bunch, with some brands emerging as clear favourites.

But which are leading the pack this year?

The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 2

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Mark BrantCEO of nimbl


“It is fascinating to see which brands are most popularamong young people in the inaugural nimbl BrandHotlist.

It’s important that we ensure the next generation fostersmart spending habits early on and, that as they grow up,they develop the financial confidence and awarenessneeded for a digital age.

As we see the continued shift to digital in the UK, thesafety and security of online payments is a top priority,so it’s fantastic to see that nimbl’s unique spendingcontrols are giving parents the confidence to help raise afinancially savvy generation.”

“As parents, many of us may begin to notice when ourchildren become more loyal to particular brands that theyand their peers favour. It’s particularly interesting to see thatchildren’s brand loyalty really steps up between the ages of12 and 13, the age at which many children begin to shopindependently, whether on social shopping trips with friendsor purchasing in-demand games online.

“We hope the first ever nimbl Brand Hotlist providesvaluable information for retailers and parents alike –showing them where the younger generation are spendingtheir money and, arguably most importantly, who they arechoosing to continue shopping with.

In what has proven to be a tricky year for almost all retailers,it is encouraging to see children are continuing to spend withthe brands they love the most – and perhaps we can all takesome comfort that it’s not just adults who may have resortedto online shopping and gaming over the lockdown period!” Scott Abrahams

Senior Vice President,Business Development & Fintech,Mastercard

Contents1. Understanding the results2. Key findings3. The top 40 brands4. Brand retention by category5. Brand loyalty by age6. Category breakdown

i. Fashionii. Gamingiii. Eating outiv. Fast foodv. Stationeryvi. Health and beautyvii. Cafés

7. Closing words

4The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 4

We examined the financial activity of more than 22,700 nimbl users and trackedthe transactions for every child aged 9-17 who spent money on their nimbl cardon at least two occasions between 1st September 2019 and 31st August 2020.

We were able not just to see where children spent most of their money, but also to minutely track brands’ retention, loss and growth rates.

In what follows you’ll see us talk about preferred retailers, brand retention andcategory retention.

Preferred retailers are the brands where children spent the most of their pocketmoney. This is a useful indication of a given brand’s popularity, but it doesn’t tellthe whole story. After all, some brands simply have more stores than others,whilst bigger items, like the latest video game console, can skew the results.

To truly measure youth brandloyalty, you need to look atbrand retention. This measuresthe percentage of childrenwho returned to spend moneywith a particular retailer overthe course of a calendar year.

Meanwhile, category retentionshows the percentage ofchildren who returned tospend their money within aparticular category of retailer(i.e. fashion or gaming) overthe course of a year.


Key Findings

We’ve used brand loyalty figures to rank the UK’shottest brands for children – so who’s come outon top?

The battle between Xbox and PlayStationfor the hearts and minds of children hasraged for years. But, just ahead of thelaunch of the next generation of console,Xbox has pulled ahead of PlayStation and isthe overall winner of the nimbl BrandHotlist 2020!

But that’s not all: we’ve also looked at children’s go-to brands for a range of retail categories, and the winners are…

Fashion: PrettyLittleThing tops the list as kid’s fashion favourite

Gaming: Xbox is the winner of the gaming league

Eating out: we’ve found that children love a cheeky Nando’s the most

Fast food: McDonald’s is children’s hottest brand for a fast food fix

Stationery: Moonpig has shot to the top of children’s stationery charts

Health and beauty: bagging the beauty win is Superdrug

Cafés: Starbucks is victorious in the clash of the cafés The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 6

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Xbox claimed 1st position inthe battle of the brands,topping the charts!

Gaming in general rankedhighly with PlayStation, Steam,Nintendo and Roblox allfeaturing in top 10 positions.


Fast Food Wins!


Brand Loyalty by Age

9-year-old children typically have limited financialindependence, and it is likely that most of their spendingtakes place during trips to the shops with parents.Therefore we see their preferred brands including moretraditional high street staples such as Costa, WHSmith,Boots and Primark.

The lower loyalty amongst this age group, with brandsretaining 13% of young shoppers, is not wholly surprising.After all, children are just taking their first tentative stepsinto the marketplace.

What is, perhaps, unexpected is the presence of Uber in thetop ten of preferred brands, though this could be down toparents seeing it as a safe way of travelling across cities.

13% Retention


Age 10 and the story remains largely the same; brandsretain 14% of young customers and the preferred retailers -Costa, WHSmith and Boots – are still the big beasts of thehigh street.

There is one important point of difference – the start ofmore online spending. Notably, at this age, The Entertainerdrops out of the top 10 preferred brands and is replaced bySmyths Toys. With the latter stocking consoles andcomputer games, our data suggests that this is the agewhere children start to develop a stronger interest in videogaming.

14% Retention


At age 11, we see a further increase in brand loyalty, withretention rates rising from 14% to 16%.

Clearly brand loyalty is increasing, but arguably we’re yetto see the emergence of truly independent spending.

Importantly, interest in video games accelerates, withXbox becoming the first gaming platform to enter the top10 preferred retailers.

16% Retention


Ages 12 and 13 are the really critical years for brands.

With children becoming more financially independent, wesee a real gear shift in youth brand loyalty as retention ratesshoot up by almost 50%, reaching 26%.

Getting a foothold at this age could see brands securecustomers for the next few years, even for life.

Not only does the popularity of game consoles like Xboxcontinue to soar, but we see restaurants break into the top10 preferred retailers for the first time as Nando’s joins thepack.

Superdrug also enters the fold as children and young teensbegin to spend their money on health and beauty productsfor the first time.

26% Retention


By age 14, brand loyalty is largely set, and there is almostno change in the preferred brands up to the age of 17.

The stalwarts – Xbox, Uber, WHSmith and Costa – remain,but they are also joined by the likes of Starbucks and Boots.

In the battle of the game consoles, Xbox emergesvictorious, with every age group proving more loyal to theconsole than its rival in PlayStation. As a new generation ofgaming systems are released, it will be interesting to see ifthis remains the case next year.

Fashion, too, becomes increasingly important. And thougha larger volume of children spend most of their moneywith Primark, PrettyLittleThing retains a significantly higherpercentage of its young customer base.

26% Retention


Fashion

Fashion - Key Findings

With the UK entering a nationwide lockdown earlier thisyear, it is perhaps inevitable that online fashion retailershave grown considerably in popularity amongst children.The likes of PrettyLittleThing and SHEIN are nowbrushing shoulders with high street giants Primark andNew Look – and the second nationwide lockdown couldsee this trend continue.

Loyalty to clothing brands is far stronger in girls than it isin boys, with the latter much more likely to spend onone-off purchases.

As children start to shop independently around the agesof 13 and 14, we see a move towards the online fashionbrands who have a stronger social media presence.


Our top five fashion brands in terms of brand retention can be seen here.

The Instagrammable PrettyLittleThing has a loyal customer base, retaining 39% ofits young consumers.

Not far behind is Primark, with a 31% retention rate, and SHEIN in third with abrand loyalty of 27%. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 17

Overall, Primark and H&M top our table of preferred retailers.

But, this year has seen a surge in popularity amongst theonline and fast fashion brands such as PrettyLittleThing,SHEIN and ASOS, which all now appear in the top 10 – thismay be partly down to lockdown, but is also likely linked tothe huge online and social presence of these brands.

In the near future, we could start to see online fashion brandsfeature even more prominently in children’s top 10,particularly if further lockdowns start to take hold.

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Primark Claire's H&M New Look JD Sports SHEIN PrettyLittleThing

This chart shows children’s preferred clothing retailers by age. For ages 9 to 11, ‘traditional’ high streetretailers take the lion’s share of child spending.

But around the ages of 13 and 14, with children experiencing greater independence and choice forbrands, we see online retailers and fast fashion brands emerge and grow in popularity.

For traditional high street stores to maintain the revenue share they enjoy from younger children, theywill need to find ways to appeal to the teen market which has greater spending influence.


Though girls are more brand loyal, with retention rates of almost 17%compared to boys at 10%, a large proportion also switch brands more often.In fact, over 44% switch where they spend, whereas a larger proportion ofboys are one-time spenders, with 34% abandoning the sector completely inthe last year.

18.9%

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Brand Loyalty - Girls

A - Lost B - Switcher C - Retained D - New

34.2%

17.1%9.5%

39.3%

Brand Loyalty - Boys



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Although we do see a slight increase in clothing brand loyalty as children age - peaking at 16% for 15-year olds- it seems that overall, children are far more fickle in the clothing brands they love. In fact, as children becomeolder, they seem to broaden their horizons and try out different brands, with 44% of 16-year olds switchingtheir favourite clothing shop year on year. This could well mean that despite the rise of PrettyLittleThing, it’sultimately all to play for in the clothing sector.


23.3%

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Category Loyalty

A - Lost B - New to Category C - Retained

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Brand Loyalty


Overall, the fashion sector category manages to retain over 50% of its young consumers each year.

In comparison, our data reveals that children are not hugely loyal to clothing brands, which retain just 15% ofyoung consumers overall, whilst the bulk of children prefer to switch brands each year. However, this figurecould be influenced by the fact that boys are significantly less loyal to clothing brands than girls. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 22

It may not come as a surprise to many that girls are far more likely to repeat spend year onyear at over 60%, compared to boys who only continue to spend on clothing year on year at arate of 27%.

There is scope for clothing brands to fully unlock the boys’ market – how can they developtheir offering to keep boys’ custom year after year?

18.9%

20.5%60.6%

Category Loyalty - Girls


34.2%

39.3%

26.6%

Category Loyalty - Boys



The older children become, the more likely they are to continue to spend on clothing year on year, rising from a 24% category retention rate in 9-year olds to a 59% retention rate in 16-year olds. At age 17 we do see a slight drop in category retention, but this may be due to older teenagers taking on traditional bank accounts, and reducing the frequency with which they use their nimbl cards.

23% 28% 27% 25% 21% 21% 19% 20%26%

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This year, 57% of children have reduced the number oftimes they spent money with fashion retailers –perhaps as a direct result of lockdown preventing themfrom visiting shops.

Meanwhile, 12% of children maintained the samefrequency of spend on clothing, whilst 32% increasedthe number of times they shopped in the fashionsector.

32%

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Fashion Spend Summary

A - Increase B - Static C - Decrease


Gaming

Gaming – Key Findings

It has been a stellar year for the gaming sector with brandloyalty sitting at 32% - the second highest amongst allcategories of retailer.

Gaming enjoys the highest spending rates compared to anyother category, until children hit the age of 15 at whichpoint clothing overtakes.

Currently boys are more loyal to both the sector and brandsthan girls, although in the last year we have seen a 41%rise in young and teen girls spending on gaming. Couldlockdown have helped spawn a new generation of gamers?


Xbox and PlayStation remain dominant in the brand loyalty rankings, while Steamfollows in a distant third at 46%. In short, the console remains king, helping to tiechildren in to brands for a longer period of time.

Crucially, though, with a lack of compatibility across platforms, it seems we can expectXbox and PlayStation to remain dominant for years to come, unless Nintendo can steala march with its next console release.


As well as dominating brand loyalty measures, Xbox andPlayStation also hold firm when it comes to preferredretailers.

Interestingly, Nintendo has made a large jump from 6th

place last year to 3rd this year, perhaps after its hugelysuccessful launch of the Nintendo Switch.

As online gaming stores grow in popularity, and withfurther lockdowns seeing children spend more time athome, we may see these retailers continue to rise up therankings.

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The gaming landscape for girls issignificantly different to the overallpicture.

Xbox and PlayStation lose theirpositions at the top, sitting at 4th

and 7th respectively, while Robloxtakes the top spot as the preferredbrand for girls, up from 4th positionlast year.

Similarly, bricks and mortar retailerssuch as The Entertainer rank highly.

Do girls like to browse for toys andgames in stores, whilst boys preferto access games digitally?

The Girls The BoysPerhaps unsurprisingly, the rankingof boys’ preferred gaming retailersclosely correlates with that of allthe children. Fortnite enters thetop 10 for boys, having increasedits rank from 10th last year to 9th

this year.

Steam is also quickly growing inpopularity, now sitting in 3rd placefor boys, whilst high streetentertainment retailers have takena significant hit in popularity.


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The Entertainer Smyths Toys Xbox Nintendo PlayStation Roblox Steam EA GAME

Xbox and PlayStation’s popularity with children starts to develop around the age of 11, and continues to grow, peakingat age 14. Amongst 9 and 10-year olds, high street toy stores are more popular but by the age of 14 their market shareis dwarfed by digital gaming platforms.

Ultimately, as children become more financially independent, they choose to spend their money on gaming platforms.The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 31

28.2%

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As well as revealing that boys are more brand loyal, our data reveals a new trend: the rise of the femalegamer, 41% of whom have spent money on games for the first time this year.

It seems likely, then, that boys are more brand loyal because they have been involved in the sector forlonger. It will be interesting to see if the entrance of girls en masse will dislodge traditional brand loyalties. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 32

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Brand Loyalty


Brand loyalty figures for children after the age of 9 remain fairly stable, with littledifference between the new, retainer, switcher and lost rates across all ages. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 33

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30.3%

Brand Loyalty


18.1%

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51.6%

Category Loyalty


The gaming category has strong retention rates, with 52% of children spending in the gamingsector year on year. Brand loyalty is also strong, with 32% of children sticking with their preferredbrand each year. It will be interesting to see how this trend may change with the new launch ofconsoles and games.


28.2%

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Boys tend to be much more likely to continue spending their pocket money on gaming year onyear, with a 62% retention rate. However, more girls are entering the gaming sector than boys,with 41% new to spending in the category this year. It will be interesting to see how the retentionrates fare in the next few years as gaming becomes increasingly popular for both genders. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 35

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A larger proportion of children begin their gaming journey at the age of 9, with 49% spending in thesector for the first time. After this, the proportion of new gamers remains relatively stable in eachyear group, but does start to decrease from the age of 15. Furthermore, as children get older, theirretention rate in the gaming sector gradually increases, peaking at 56% in 15-year olds.


Interestingly, 52% of children have reduced thenumber of transactions on gaming this year, whilstonly 8% maintained their spend frequency.

However, 41% of children spent on gaming on moreoccasions this year, which could be down to themusing online gaming platforms more over lockdown, aswell as new games being released.

It will be interesting to see whether the sectorstabilises as we return to some form of normality, or ifthe pull of gaming and improvements in technologydraw children to spend even more in the industry. 41%

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Gaming Spend Summary



Eating out

Eating Out – Key Findings

It’s all to play for in the restaurant sector as both girlsand boys display relatively low levels of brand loyalty.

Though restaurants have taken a hit thanks to Covidrestrictions, it’s not all bad news.

With fairly low retention rates across the board, perhapsdue to the abundance of choice and similar pricepoints, agile and innovative brands have an opportunityto take a larger bite out of the youth market.


The clear exceptions to the overall low levels of brand loyalty are Nando’s and Wagamama. Thesebrands are typically more popular with the younger audience, perhaps thanks to their low prices; socialdining experiences; cult social media followings; and parent-friendly, healthy options.

Crucially, though, it is largely down to the intense popularity of these brands at the younger ages –particularly 12 and 13-year olds – that sees Nando’s and Wagamama achieve such high retention rates. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 40

Nando’s leads the pack for preferred retailers. Butwhy?

It may be that Nando’s is seen as the relativelyhealthier option, but it may also be down to the factthat the brand successfully pivoted during lockdownto offer a home delivery and takeaway service.

Clues may also be found in the cult online followingNando’s has gathered amongst youngsters. Thelesson? Traditional restaurants may need toinnovate or differentiate in order to close the gapand retain their customers.

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Girls are slightly more loyal when it comes to their preferred restaurant brands than boys, with almost 17%staying with their preferred brand from last year compared to just under 16% of boys.

Interestingly, girls are also more likely to switch to a different preferred brand than boys, at just under 17%compared to almost 10% for boys, whilst boys are more likely to stop spending on restaurants altogether, ata little over 30% compared to just under 29% for girls.


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Older children are far more likely to stick with their preferred restaurant brand than youngerchildren, with brand loyalty rising from 7% in 12-year olds to 20% in 17-year olds. Brands mayneed to work hard in the earlier years to entice their younger customers, with the view that asthey get older they become more loyal and are more likely to spend more. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 43

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Brand Loyalty


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Category Loyalty


Despite the impact of Covid-19 on restaurants this year, the sector can remain hopeful over the state of the youthmarket: 30% of children continue to spend in restaurants, with over 40% entering the sector as new spenders.

Crucially, however, children’s overall brand loyalty is relatively low, with over 40% of children instead choosing tospend with new restaurant brands this year, meaning there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy a large slice of the market. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 44

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Girls are far more likely than boys to continue to visit restaurants year on year: indeed, 33% spent again this year, compared to 25% of boys.

This may be driven by the social element of eating out – are girls combining their shopping trips with restaurant visits or meeting up with friends at their favourite food outlet?


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Before the age of 12, children tend not to spend at all in the restaurant sector – most likely due tothem dining with parents, meaning they’re unlikely to be paying for their meals.

As they grow older, children are much more likely to spend regularly with restaurants, perhapsbecause they have more independence: in fact, 17-year olds have a retention rate of 37%, aconsiderable comparison to a 12% retention rate in 12-year olds.


Fast Food

Fast Food – Key Findings

It’s all smiles for Ronald: children are more than twiceas loyal to McDonald’s than to any other fast foodbrand. And thanks to the popularity of McDonald’s,brand loyalty is stronger in fast food than any othersector.

Below McDonald’s, competition is particularly fierce asthe other fast food brands look to take a bite out of theyouth market.

Children’s fast food spending is most likelydiscretionary – a weekend treat, for instance - so we’veseen the top brands establish loyal customers from anearly age. But as healthy eating becomes more popularwith young people, is there the opportunity for cleanerfast food brands to make an impact in this space??


McDonald’s is head and shoulders above the rest of fast food brands in terms of brandloyalty, retaining its position as preferred brand with 55% of active children. Second best isGreggs with a 26% retention rate, with SUBWAY and Domino’s hot on its heels with a brandloyalty of 24%.

Did the controversial vegan sausage roll bag Greggs second place? The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 49

Unsurprisingly for a brand with such strong retentionrates, McDonald’s maintains a huge lead in the list ofpreferred retailers. A total of 6,400 nimbl usersvisited McDonald’s last year, compared to SUBWAY insecond place with 975.

Overall, the fast food top 10 has remained stablesince last year, with only Greggs and KFC tradingplaces for third and fourth. But below the top spot,the landscape is competitive and there’s space forbrands to gobble up more market share.

*As purely home delivery brands, Just Eat and Deliveroo were excluded from the Top 10

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Girls seem to be the most loyal to their favourite fast food brands, with a brand retentionof almost 36% compared to 29% for boys. Interestingly, boys switch brands slightlymore often than girls, and more boys abandoned the sector altogether last year. Thequestion is: are boys becoming more health conscious? The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 51

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Fast food brand loyalty seems to grow in older children as they find their financialindependence. McDonald’s dominates as the preferred fast food brand from a youngage, which is translated into particularly loyal teenage customers, making it trickier forthe other brands to establish themselves as major competitors in the youth market. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 52

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As children grow up, it seems their hunger for the fast food category increases too, withcategory retention rates rising from 20% in 9-year olds to an impressive 71% in 17-yearolds. Fast food is undoubtedly popular with children of all ages – but will healthy eatinginitiatives change this picture in the coming years? The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 53

Stationery

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The youth stationery market is far from small. Butcompared to many other categories, stationery has arelatively low brand loyalty.

Moonpig tops the brand loyalty charts, but we are alsoseeing some of the more niche brands, such as Etsy,quickly grow in popularity. It will be interesting to see ifthey continue that trend in the coming years.

Stationery – Key Findings


The top five stationery brands have reasonable levels of retention, with number one brandMoonpig in the lead retaining over 30% of its young customer-base – edging out high streetgiant, WHSmith, which has a brand loyalty of 29%.

Close behind is Etsy with a retention rate of 21%, sitting just above popular retailer The Works,with Card Factory sitting in 5th position. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 56

With WHSmith stores on almost every street corner, it’sperhaps not so surprising that almost 2,600 childrenhave it as their preferred stationery shop. And insecond place, The Works is not so far behind the topspot.

Online platform Etsy seems to be really shaking up thestationery space, climbing the rankings into fourthplace above Paperchase this year, with an offering ofunique products and its showcasing of smallbusinesses clearly chiming with the youth market.

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31.6%

20.8%16.4%

31.3%



41.5%

8.1%14.7%

35.7%



Both boys and girls display similar rates of loyalty to their stationery brands, butinterestingly girls are far more likely to switch preferred brands, with over 20% changingthis, compared to 8% of boys. In fact, boys are much more likely to not spend onstationery at all if they do move away from their preferred brand.


31%40% 36% 35% 31% 35% 36% 31% 35%

9%

10% 13% 14% 19%19% 17%

20% 17%16%

14% 16% 16% 16%17% 16%

13%18%

44%36% 35% 36% 34% 29% 31% 35%

29%

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Stationery brand loyalty rates are relatively stable across all ages, perhaps unsurprising givenmost spending will likely be on school supplies. It would be interesting to see how theseresults could change if established retailers re-invent loyalty schemes or switch up their brandofferings to entice school-age children to change their go-to brand for supply shopping.


This year, youth stationery spending droppedmassively, with 70% of children reducing their spend inthe category. This is considerably more than other highstreet categories, such as clothing.

Only 15% of children spent more on stationery thisyear, however these could be children who spent verylittle in the previous year.

The most likely cause of this fall in spend may well bedue to lockdown and the closure of schools, makingstationery less of a necessity as online learning becamethe norm for the final term of the 2019/20 academicyear. 15%

15%

70%

Stationery Spend Summary



Health & Beauty

Health & Beauty – Key Findings

Health and beauty is heavily dominated by girls, withsome evidence that boys mainly choose to spend forgifting purposes.

But although girls’ spending in the overall categoryremains strong, brand loyalty tells a somewhat differentstory, with the same proportion of children sticking totheir favourite brand as those who switched to a newpreferred brand.

62The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 62

For brand loyalty, Superdrug comes out on top with a retention rate of 39%. Lush andBody Shop have lower retention rates by comparison, at 14% and 11% respectively, butdo feature in the top five for brand loyalty.

This could be down to these stores being more gift orientated, therefore encouragingone-off spending on special items, perhaps as gifts for family and friends. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 63

Competition is strong when comparing the numberof children who prefer each health and beautybrand: just 146 nimbl users lie between Superdrugin top spot and Boots in second, but these positionshave remained stable since last year.

Lush and The Body Shop come in third and fourthplace with relatively substantial numbers of childrenpreferring to shop with both brands.

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23.4%

22.8%

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31.0%



38.9%

7.1%7.2%

46.8%



Interestingly, girls’ loyalty to their preferred brands is not as high as the overall category retentionrate, keeping to their preferred brand at a rate of almost 23%. Nevertheless, it remains clear fromthe brand loyalty figures that boys have little to no attraction to health and beauty retailers, withthe majority either new or lost to brands, suggesting most purchases are one-off gifts.


22%30% 31%

25% 22% 23% 26% 25%32%

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There is a real leap in brand loyalty between the ages of 12 and 13, with brand retention jumpingfrom 10% to 18%. This may be down to parents allowing their children to purchase more of theirown beauty products as they reach their teenage years, whilst limiting the independent shopping ofyounger children. It could also be the case that personal appearance becomes more important aschildren get older.


23.4%

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45.6%



38.9%

46.8%

14.2%



Health and beauty is particularly popular amongst girls, with over 45% choosing tokeep spending in the category year on year. This is in stark comparison to boys, whereonly 14% continue to spend on health and beauty again the following year, andalmost 39% stop shopping in this category. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 67

Cafés

Cafés – Key Findings

Overall, brand loyalty amongst cafés is stronger than allother sectors and is dominated by Starbucks and Costa.

Interestingly, girls choose to continue spending at cafésmore than boys, perhaps drawing on the social elementof shopping and spending, a recurring themethroughout the analysis.

The competition is fierce between Starbucks and Costa,with little between them in the fight for top spot.

The café category is clearly dominated by four majorplayers: below these, very few children visited thevarious alternative café brands and so these have notbeen included in the charts that follow.


The ‘big two’ café chains dominate the market across the board, and when it comes to brandloyalty, Starbucks takes the lead over its rival with almost 40%, a fraction above Costa’s brandretention rate of 39%.

Pret is also not too far behind the big two, but may be limited due to its number of stores:389 outlets, compared to Starbucks’ 900.


Interestingly, when it comes to the number ofchildren who prefer each brand, Costa takes top spotwith a lead of little more than 200 over Starbucks: aninteresting switch, given Starbucks’ stronger brandloyalty rate.

Pret and Caffè Nero, despite being popular high streetbrands, don’t seem to have secured as much volumein the youth market as Costa and Starbucks currentlyhold.

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35% 38%27%

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As children become older, we see them becoming more brand loyal to their favourite café.Ages 12 and 13 are the key years, with brand loyalty increasing from 19% to 28%.

But alongside growing brand loyalty, we do also see some children switching their preferredcafé brand more as they get older, showing that although loyalty does grow, brands do needto be aware of possible switching trends amongst older children.


26.2%

31.1%

42.7%



36.4%

36.7%

26.9%



As with most categories, girls tend to retain their spend in cafés at a much higher rate thanboys. It seems likely that ‘social spend’ is a large influencing factor on girls, which may nothave as much of an effect on boys: we even see that 36% of boys stopped their spend in thecafé category, compared to the previous year. The nimbl Brand Hotlist | 73

The Brand Hotlist 2020We are one of the UK's most popular prepaid cards for children, and provideservices to thousands of young adults across the UK. This gives us a uniqueperspective into the spending patterns of young people and a valuable insightinto the UK’s thriving youth economy.

This is precisely why we will be publishing our Brand Hotlist annually: togive brands and retailers a first-hand view of children’s levels of brand loyalty andspending habits.

We will also be keeping a close eye on trends in youth spending throughout theyear. If you would be interested in finding out more on any aspect of the BrandHotlist or would like to drill down into spending in any particular category, thenwe would love to hear from you.

Do drop our media team a line at [email protected] or get in touch via:

Twitter - @nimbltalk

Instagram - @nimbltalk

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Talknimbl

LinkedIn - nimbl ltd

https://www.facebook.com/Talknimb

the brand hotlist 2020 - nimbl

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