After a super successful Eras Tour and emerging as a billionaire, songbird Taylor Swift is the 2023 Queen of Marketing. Her ability to enchant audiences with her music and storytelling is just so fairytale-like.
Taylor Swift oozes star power. Taylor Swift is a brand. She connects with her fans and followers and makes direct and authentic connections by acknowledging and replying to their posts. Taylor Swift doesn’t look down on her crazy fans and enthusiasts; in fact, she likes their posts and images and reposts their selfies holding her album cover!
Taylor Swift Has Packed Stadiums
Steven Chen, professor of marketing at Cal State Fullerton, said the Love Story singer has been able to attract a diverse range of consumers through her nearly 20-year career. He pointed out that her cash machine “The Eras Tour”, the Taylor Swift concert, played on the idea of nostalgia.
It reached out to a diverse group of consumers – adolescents, Gen Z, Gen Xer, and Millennials alike, as well as baby boomers. Chen explained that in marketing, Taylor Swift would be considered to be in the mature part of a product’s life cycle – a period where consumers are diverse in all manners, and reach is extensive. Moreover, her ability to draw fans and revenue is at maximum – an all-time peak.
“While Swift is still comparatively young, The Eras Tour invokes nostalgia marketing in heavy doses. It’s a play to an idealized past. For two or three hours, fans can forget about the toxicity of the modern world, and return to a time when things were simpler and full of light and promise.”
Personal Touch
Taylor Swift has the ability to create real movements through messaging. Take for example the public statement after she withdrew her entire catalogue from Spotify. It has her own statement and not a PR firm.
The 33-year-old said “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves, or undervalue their art.”
Taylor Swift albums also collided with Apple Music’s launch policy. “I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3-month trial to anyone who signs up for the service. I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.”
Her comment prompted Apple to step back and change its policy. It’s now paying streaming loyalties.
Beyond Music
Besides being a musician, Taylor Swift is a businesswoman. She has collaborated with brands and her endorsements have been strategic and well-executed. The young woman is also a passionate philanthropist and activist. Taylor Swift threw her support for various social causes.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian who is struggling in Gaza, recently disclosed in her Gaza diary that she draws inspiration from a Taylor Swift song – Shake it Off:
But I keep cruising
Can’t stop, won’t stop moving
It’s like I got this music in my mind
Saying it’s gonna be alright
Taylor Swift is beyond music, beyond borders. She sets new standards.
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