Insight
“Shake It Off”: 3 Ways Taylor Swift’s Business Strategies Offer a Blueprint for Brand Evolution
With over 50% of American adults referring to themselves as her fans, her songs streamed 26.1 billion times on Spotify from January-November 2023, and her Eras Tour becoming the first music event to pass $1B in revenue, Taylor Swift is as much a shrewd businesswoman as she is a globally renowned artist.
Her 21-year (and counting!) successful career is full of valuable lessons for brands looking to stay relevant in a dynamic market.
Here, we explore 3 key Taylor Swift-inspired business strategies brands can consider to evolve and grow their own businesses.
1. Innovation STRATEGY: Create and Reimagine
Taylor Swift’s career is marked by her ability to regularly overhaul her presence, whether it’s re-recording her earlier body of work or evolving her music style based on evolving tastes. Her innovative approach keeps her work fresh and relevant to her fans. In moving from genres including country (Taylor Swift) to pop (Lover) to indie folk (Evermore), she’s overhauled her presence 11 times. Like with any successful brand strategy and launch, bringing these new eras to life involved careful consideration and strategic planning by the Swift team.
Brands can innovate by…
- Being Future-Ready: Develop visionary plans and actions that align with goals 1-5 years into the future, depending on the brand’s outlook. Swift’s life is consistently planned out 2 years in advance, providing opportunity paths and a framework for new ideas to fit within.
- Unlocking “Aha” Learning: Consumer research – from traditional methods to newer approaches like AI moderators and influencer interviews geared toward unlocking Gen Z insights – can bring the critical customer voice to life and help brands design products and services that meet higher-order needs and enhanced experiences. At Swift’s Eras tour, she plays extra songs not on the official set list but sourced through social media fan requests.
- Amplifying Experience and Delight: It’s not just new launches listeners are excited for, but out-of-nowhere updates to the fan experience and brand touchpoints as well. Swift’s unexpected album releases break the most records – her 2020 release of Folklore broke Spotify’s records of the most day-one album streams at 80.6M.
2. Building Communities: Personal Connections and Storytelling
Taylor Swift’s ability to create personal connections through her lyrics is central to her success. She builds strong emotional bonds creating music that resonates with listeners’ life experiences, rendering them “Swifties” instead of just fans. This connection has been the key to both her popularity and the willingness of these Swifties to mobilize and counter the “haters” who publicly decry Swift and her music.
Brands can create meaningful human connections by…
- Tapping into Emotional Journeys: Swift’s storytelling is her most powerful tool to connect to audiences. She often writes lyrics that are highly personal while also being very relatable to her listeners. Whether she’s singing about her mom’s cancer scare or having her heart broken, Swift is vulnerable and open in her writing, which invites listeners into a community where they connect over the same experiences. These shared moments are touchstones, the same type that can help brands build their own communities and create successful marketing campaigns.
- Pulling Back the Curtain: Who are the people behind the brand, and what do their daily lives look like? Swift carefully manages access to herself and those around her. It’s easier to make fan connections and be viewed as a relatable friend when there is transparency, as Swift knows (all too) well. Brands can also make connections by being transparent in their processes, whether it’s visible ingredient sourcing for manufacturers or access to what it takes to develop an offering for a service provider.
3. Forging Alliances: Strategic Partnerships and
Collaborations
Another tool in Swift’s toolkit is the partnerships and collaborations she uses to uplift her presence. She doesn’t say yes to every opportunity that crosses her path but rather selects ideas that will genuinely further her growth.
Brands can tap into this example by…
- Expanding the Family: The most valuable part of a successful partnership grants access to a new audience or fan base. Brands can release new products or services in conjunction with other brands to help each other be seen by new eyes. Swift often does this by working with artists who have different fan bases, be it HAIM, Kendrick Lamar, or Ed Sheeran.
- Piloting Win-Win Relationships: Brands can find greater success by partaking in collaborations that create growth for both parties, not just one. Swift partnered with Google to create 89 puzzles that, once solved, revealed upcoming vault track titles to her fans. 33 million users solved the puzzles together, bringing serious traffic to Google and excitement and energy to Swift’s newest album.
- Making Space for All: While many partnerships result in exclusive and top-dollar offers for consumers, it’s important to keep price accessibility in mind. When Swift decided to create her Eras Tour film, she developed a way to capture overflow demand for fans who couldn’t afford to see her concert in real life without cheapening the experience on either end. This plan paid off, as the movie exceeded $250M in gross sales at the global box office, and her tour continues to be a sold-out success.
Taylor Swift’s business strategies offer a wide array of relevant lessons for brands looking to grow. By embracing innovation and adaptability, personal connection and storytelling, and strategic partnerships and collaborations, brands can achieve success and live out their Wildest Dreams.
As brand strategy consultants, we help brands connect with consumers and evolve to stay ahead of competitors every day. Interested in learning more? Reach out to jacqueline.holliday@go-upland.com.
