This weekend I lived the dream of every 8 year old girl in America; seeing Taylor Swift in concert. Myself and 16,000 other fans crowded into Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky for about 4 hours of pure enjoyment. Knowing I wanted to write this blog over the concert, one thing became evident to me throughout the night; anything that has to do with Taylor Swift has a higher perceived value.
Now for those of you who have never been to a Taylor Swift concert, people get into it. From the little girls in their Taylor Swift t-shirts, the mom's dressed like cowgirls for their daughters, to the all out super fans who paint their bodies, these concerts are quite the spectacle. All these things that people do are to gain the attention of Swift herself; because her approval makes all the effort worth it. And the perceived value of Swift's approval is worth more than all the time and effort that was put into the costume or poster they made.
The same can be said for the Swift merchandise stand. A regular pack of glowsticks costs about $2, but once you put Taylor Swift's name on them its worth $15. Or you can buy a 5 pack of t-shirts from Walmart for $10, but one shirt with a picture of Swift is worth double that. Within the past 3 weeks thousands of people have even gone out and bought Swift's new perfume, Wonderstruck. It's been proven time and time again; if you make it, they will buy it.
Point being, Taylor Swift is her own Brand, Product, and Empire. At this point they could make Taylor Swift paperclips and people would by them. Because the true "swifties" don't care what the product is, if it has to do with her it's worth it. To them, Taylor Swift products have a higher perceived value than everything else. So I guess the only difference between these 8 year olds and myself is that I actually know I am sucked into this whirlpool of Taylor Swiftness. But even so, I guess it just drags me headfirst, fearless.
I was drawn to this article because I am a huge country music fan. After reading, I would completely agree that Taylor is a brand herself. This spreads all over the place as well. I recently attended a Tim McGraw concert and saw the exact same thing. All marketers need to do is slap something about an artist on just about anything and people will buy it. One other place I have seen this is in sports memorabilia stores such as Squeeze Play. You can find the most random items with a team logo on it and people will purchase the item just for that team logo.
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