Oreos, Hersheys, Sprite Top Youth Brands

NEW YORKMainstay food brands like Oreo, Hersheys and Sprite rank the highest among U.S. consumers ages 8 to 24, according to results of the 2012 Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend® study, an annual study that measures brand equity as an outcome of familiarity, quality and purchase consideration among a market sector expected to spend approximately $211 billion in 2012.

"Youth of today have spending power and they also have loyalty to brands. Some of this comes from their parents, but they also make their own decisions," said Regina A. Corso, Senior Vice President for Youth and Education Research at Harris Interactive. "Brands who tap into this loyalty when a consumer is a tween, and nurture it through the teen years, will have an extremely loyal customer by the time the customer is a young adult. Companies need to remember that consumers do not magically appear at age 18."

While Apple brands ranked highest among the categories of computers, tablets and smart phones, food and beverages remained extremely popular among Americas youth.

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Candy Bars was ranked the highest brand in the Sweets Treats category, while Cheerios was the hands-down favorite in the Cereals category. Oreo Cookies was the No. 1 brand in the Cookies segment, while Sprite beat out Coke and Pepsi to capture the Soda category. Minute Maid ranked the highest brand in the Fruit Juices category, and Capri Sun ranked the highest in the Fruit Flavored Drinks sector.

The study was conducted online among 5,077 U.S. consumers ages 8-24 in August 2011. A total of 121 brands were rated among 8- to-12-year-olds and 167 brands among 13- to-24-year-olds.