Taylor Swift as a marketing phenomenon: What makes it so special?

She has 280 million fans on Instagram, played the top -selling concert tour in music history and was the first artist to take all ten places on the Billboard Top 100 charts at the same time: Taylor Swift. There is hardly anyone with whom you can compare them. Swift seems to play in her own league – Both in terms of marketing around your albums and your community binding. With their “swifties”, the fans of the singer call themselves, it is better not to bother, it is often said.

But what distinguishes Taylor Swift from other stars? How did she manage to create such an incredible hype about her person?

“Taylor is a mastermind”, it is often said in the media or in fan circles. What is meant by this? She managed to make her name a brand. And not only since the “Eras tour”. Swift did things early on that nobody else did in front of her, for example to invite fans to their own four walls. For example, the world star opened its doors for a so -called “Secret Session” for the first time in 2014 (others followed): into the private living room of Taylor to celebrate the release of the new album “1989”. Selected swifties were allowed to take a seat on their sofa, eat Taylor’s homemade cookies and chat with her over the album. More fanks are not possible!

In the past, the supporters were invited to Swift home, today fans who are particularly present on the net get invitations to tour. So you will actively integrated into marketing-the more Taylor content, the higher the probability of “Taylor Nation”, its official Social–Media-Team to be seen. This creates a huge wave of Swift content and free advertising for the singer.

The superstar’s community engagement goes on! No other artist has a comparable outcry if a new post goes online, every caption, every picture is analyzed as precisely as with Taylor Swift. The reason: Taylor and “Taylor Nation” have been hiding “Easter Eggs”, that is, small information for the fans, in theirs for years Musicin stage sets, in social media postings. Your supporters love these games and diligently advise you to say what the singer wants to tell. For example, almost a year ago there was a hint in one of Taylor Swift’s Tikok videos on their current album announcement:

In this way, fans become active players. Each release becomes an event and remains present in the collective memory.

Your 12th studio album “The Life of a Showgirl” SWIFT terminated in her partner’s podcast Travis Kelce – unusual for the singer, in terms of marketing, but again a clever move! The choice of the podcast gives the proclamation of special news and exclusivity: instead of a simple statement, listeners receive listeners which also creates attention and conversation in public and media. The appearance in the podcast The range also increases extremely. The moment binds both fan bases, sports fans and swifties, and ensures discussion in pop culture and sport across industries.

Another Taylor Swift phenomenon: There are many of their albums twice. Why? Because she did not have the rights to her own music for years. Swift therefore later recovered six of her first albums as “Taylor’s version” and the rights belong to her. This trick was not only an act of creative emancipation, but also a commercial success. The musician combines artistic credibility with clever monetization with exclusive editions, bonus tracks and various variants of the albums.

What Taylor Swift particularly distinguishes is their gift for the song letter. Your storytelling is always highlighted as unique. SWIFT released an album at the age of 21, on which each of the 14 songs was completely written by her. The fans love the way the “Blank Space” interpreter tells entire stories in her songs. In addition, Swift has changed and lived out musically over the years. The change of musical “epochs” (e.g. from Country to Pop) are deliberately staged – the “Eras Tour” Was the best example: With the tour, Swift consistently marketed her development as an artist, each of the numerous albums that were part of the concert series stood for a new, clearly recognizable era – with a corresponding merch.

Taylor Swift has already written music history. She breaks one record after another. And even if not everyone can understand the hype about the singer or fight for concert tickets for hours in the ticket master war, the 35-year-old has to be admitted that she is a phenomenon. Swift uses its possibilities and that of the social media time perfectly, creates an incomparable sense of community among their supporters and has become the most powerful brand of pop culture.