COLOGNE BRAND PREFERENCES OF TEENAGERS IN THE PHILIPPINES: MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

Studies focusing on the constantly changing buying behavior and product preferences of abooming teen market are rare and this is particularly true in the Philippines. To address thisgap in the literature, this study focused on the supermarket brands of cologne preferred byteens in the Philippines such as Lewis & Pearl (L&P), Johnson’s Baby Cologne, Juicy,Bench, Ellips, Fiona, Bambini and Baby Flo which are manufactured by various competingcompanies. Essentially, this study presented and described the profile and buying behavior ofcologne users and non-cologne users and determined whether preferential differences existedbetween these brands. The respondents consisted of 473 teens all over the Philippinesstratified in terms of general location via the three major groups of islands in the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Respondents came from selected schools inQuezon City in Metro Manila, Sariaya in Quezon Province, Cebu City, and Digos City torepresent the Greater Metro Manila Area, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, respectively. Findings showed that almost all of the respondents used cologne at varying degrees. Ingeneral, teens use several scents and brands of cologne and continually shift from onescent/brand to another scent/brand. This made it difficult for any company to capture loyalconsumers. The most popular brands used by teenagers were Bench (61.7%), Lewis andPearl (59%), Juicy (42%), Afficionado (32%), Fiona (19.3%), Penshoppe (18%), Bambini(12.6%), Ellips (11.3%) and Zen Zest (7.5%). Fragrance or scent is the top priority ofteenagers in choosing a cologne brand, followed by brand name, affordability, bottle designand endorser. The spray bottle type of colognes is preferred even if cologne spray bottlesare priced higher than the splash cologne bottle type. Managerial implications of thesefindings for market players, marketing scholars and prospective investors are presented.