Taylor Swift is an entertainment phenomenon. She is the only artist this year to sell over a million albums in the first week of its release. She is the only female artist to replace herself on the top of the music charts with back to back number one hits. And she seems to be everywhere, from guest coaching on The Voice to appearing on talk shows from sun up to sun down.
Her success is no accident though. It has come from talent, hard work and calculated risks like removing her library from Spotify. To see if there are lessons marketers can learn from Swift, I recently had a conversation with a marketing leader who has had a ringside seat. Chris Lindner recently assumed the role of brand president at Keds after a tenure as CMO of Saucony, a sister brand in the Wolverine Corporation portfolio, where he is focused on engaging young females 13 – 24 he describes as “brave girls.” According to Lindner, “Keds’ mission is all about inspiring brave acts in these younger women. Celebrating them and inspiring them to be confident in who they are and where they are going. We have an amazing initiative called the Brave Life Project and it’s all about inspiring these young women and showing them different ways that they can take hold and own who they are.”
I asked Lindner how this initiative led to the brand’s associate with Taylor Swift. “The platform of connecting and inspiring young women through bravery or empowerment led to the idea working with Taylor two years ago. Obviously, music is a powerful connection to that consumer and the community, and Taylor was sort of a walking manifestation of the Brave Girl. We call her Brave Girl Number 1 because of all of the amazing things that she stands for and does. She doesn’t go out and say ‘Hey I’m brave or be brave,’ but the way she carries herself and the amazing things that she does every day served as the perfect muse not only for the brand but as an inspiration for so many of these girls that we were connecting with.”
From his close association with Swift, Lindner believes there are five things that she does that other marketers should emulate.
Re-imagine your brand experience: Taylor’s done a phenomenal job throughout her career of reinvention or re-imagination. It could be from a fashion standpoint, it could be from a music standpoint. As a little girl growing up in Pennsylvania with a passion for becoming a country music artist, she set out on an amazing journey and became the darling of Nashville. She eventually moved from Nashville to New York and continued growing not only as an artist but as a person, reinventing her music along the way. She evolved from country artist to true pop artist. You can hear it and feel it in her music in amazing ways. I think as brand marketers we always have to think about how we can re-imagine our own brand experiences. We talk a lot about that. “What does that mean for us? How do we always stay out ahead of our consumers?” We’re always engaged in a dialog but are we moving that to new places? So shared reinvention is something that all brands should think about.
Truly engage with your community: Engagement for Taylor is all about creating a relationship with her fans and she has culivated an incredible community. She’s truly interacting and engaging in the lives of these fans. She knows who they are. She’ll both talk to them and listen to them. And there have been some great examples where she stepped in as somebody who’s passionate about her fans. Whether it’s standing up for a young girl who is dealing with a bullying issue or just stepping in to share something that has inspired her, she has had a real relationship with her fans around the world. And obviously as brands, it’s not about just using social to talk at or talk to your community, it’s about truly engaging in this two-way dialogue and actually walking the walk not just talking the talk of connecting with the community.
Surprise and delight your most passionate followers: I think that there is this element of surprise and delight with the recent launch of her new album 1989 that has been really interesting to watch, whether it was the launch of the Shake it Off video or her 1989 Secret Sessions listening parties that she held in four locations across the US and UK. Taylor hand picked fans from her community and brought them all into a secret location where they were then surprised with a personal visit from Taylor in her own private home! She took them through the entire album, told them stories about the songs and her inspirations for the songs and in a unique way brought her album to life. As a brand marketer, if you’ve got a product launch, you should be thinking about how you can take a smaller subset of your community, fans or customers and create a unique experience that truly astonishes them and encourages them to share their own incredible story within their social networks.
Create excitement during the first week of a launch: The launch of 1989 has been nothing short of spectacular. Taylor is the only artist since 1991 who's had three consecutive million unit first-week album sales. Central to the launch and the buildup and the excitement was picking a day, creating awareness ahead of that launch day, using all levels of social, advertising, partner marketing and PR to drive that first week’s excitement. Obviously not all brands can be on every talk show during the week, but I think the idea of creating excitement around your product launch and picking a day to really celebrate that product you’re launching is a great reminder for all brand marketers.
Manage your brand with integrity: Taylor has sold millions and millions of albums. But she isn't on one of the world's biggest streaming services, Spotify. I’m sure there’s a lot of pressure on Taylor to go back to Spotify but she's taken a personal stand that she doesn't believe it's the right distribution for her music at this time. And whether you agree with the decision or not, you can’t argue with the fact that she is managing her own brand in a way that's consistent with her personal values. As brand marketers, we all have to make tough decisions about distribution. There are many situations whereby short term pressures force bad choices for product placement in the wrong channels. In the end, having integrity about where you are distributed as a brand, setting the right criteria and having the discipline to manage your partnerships is paramount. I've found that the best partners challenge one another openly and honestly and usually that results in long-term success for the brand.
