Taylor Swift writing sample

1. Anila John
Syracuse University
Taylor Swift’s shift from Country music to Pop music
Taylor swift has continued to produce music consistently over the past 9 years. She has 5 albums
under her name – 4 country and 1 pop. This paper aims at understanding why Swift decided to
move from Country music to Pop music with the release of her most recent album 1989 by focusing
on her customer base including her customer oriented marketing strategies.
BCG Matrix for Taylor Swift’s music:
The main features of her customer oriented marketing model are highlighted below:
Taylor Swift’s album sales started declining post her second album, “Fearless”. As shown by the
BCG model for her music we can see that her album sales had reached a declining phase after the
release of her third album. Her fourth album “Red” has the lowest sales at $4.16 million. By the
end of 2013, she felt the need to redesign her music so as to attract more customers to her
product – her music. Thus began her shift from country music to pop.
1. Mixture of push and pull marketing
Taylor Swift’s marketing model post 2013 was a combination of both push and pull marketing. In
order to obtain new customers, Swift collaborated two of the biggest pop music producers, Max
Martin and Shellback. She also released album lyrics before the album came out to get customers
excited about her music. To retain her previous customer base Swift employed many different
marketing tactics as discussed below.
Growth | High growth, high market share
2008-2009
 2008: Released second album (Fearless)
 Biggest hit “Love Story” released in this
album. Gained recognition for this song
Worldwide
 Album sales increased as compared to
previous album
 First headlining tour helped retain current
customers and build customer base.
Introduction | High growth, low market share
2006-2008
 2006: Entered the country music market
with self titled album
 Investments made by record label
 Fresh music, managed to capture
customer attention
Maturity | Low growth, high market share
2009-2010
 Won 4 Grammy’s for Fearless thus
attaining immense recognition for her
music
 2010: Released 3rd
album “Speak Now”
 Sharp decline in sales observed
Decline | Low growth, low market share
2010-2014
 2012: Released 4th
album “Red”
 Continued decline in sales
 Need to develop and introduce a new
product or enter a new market while
retaining current customer base

2. Anila John
Syracuse University
2. Extensive market research
The need to move from country music to pop music was recognized by her marketing team because
of the current music market wherein Pop music is more dominant than country. They realized what
customers wanted from the product and managed to deliver according to the wants of these
customers.
3. High rewards for valued customers
The “1989 Secret Sessions” were pre album release sessions Swift held with her “devoted” fans in
the US and UK. These fans were found over social media and had no idea what they were getting
into when they arrived at her doorstep. The first single from the album “Shake it Off” included
about 25 of her fans. Other than this she also held an album release party for select fans in NYC.
4. One to one customer contact
Her marketing team analyzed her customer base through social media and came up with the
concept of “Taylurking” wherein they would post a picture of her fans on her social media pages.
This sent out the message that “Taylor Swift is interested in what you’re doing” and this kept
customers happy. Other than this Taylor sent out personalized Christmas gifts in 2014 to select
fans. These gifts included handwritten letters by her and one gift even included money for a fan’s
college loan!
Thus, Taylor Swift’s marketing model has been extremely customer oriented. This model has
definitely worked for her as she is currently one of the top artists in terms of album sales in the
music industry.