Strategy Business Stream Deliverable
CASE TITLE: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour: Managing a Billion Dollar Symphony
DATE: 2025-04-26
PREPARED BY: Desmond Keats
Key Issues:
- Ticketmaster was unprepared to deal with the volume of traffic coming in when it was
time to buy tickets, potentially due to a philosophical misalignment with Taylor Swift in
regards to customer service.
- Demand for the concert far outweighed supply due to Tayler Swift’s popularity, resulting
in largely wasted potential for her to capitalize on.
- Little new content in regards to further touring after the eras tour due to little
product/service diversification
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
- Cultural Icon - Exclusivity (Missing out on potential
- Devoted fanbase profits)
- Large amounts of capital - Reliance on outside companies (i.e
- Exclusivity (motivating fans to ticketmaster)
purchase)
- Devoted to fans
Opportunities Threats
- Opportunity to diversify (meet - Turnover rate for trends in the music
demand) industry and western culture (cultural
- Well positioned to cement herself in trends go by quickly)
the music industry
Additional analysis
- Young Fanbase: Taylor Swift’s largest stakeholder is her fanbase composed mainly of
Gen Z, which is ideologically aligned with issues such as Social Justice, Environmental
Sustainability, etc.
- Economic incentives for hosting: Malls, cities, and countries all around the world
benefit from an economic boost during a Taylor Swift concert, meaning that locales
would enable and support her setting up shop.
- General fear of global recession: The current fears of a global recession mean that a
lot of companies may be slowing down on expansion, creating a low competition
environment for expansion, especially because Taylor Swift has a lot of capital at her
disposal
Recommendations
1. Make further expansions into clothing: Modelling based of the Air Jordans’ success,
invest further into a clothing line with an emphasis on quality, sustainability, and
exclusivity
a) Conceive a specific apparel, such as shoes or pants, which evokes an
unforgettable image that is known everywhere.
b) Invest into the sustainable production of clothing items and the quality of them
while keeping sales prices as low as possible: creating a lasting brand to contrast
with current trends towards fast fashion will separate it from the competition.
c) Moving away from touring and into more mainstream markets such as retail will
provide a stable base of income if Taylor Swift’s music ever “goes out of style”
2. Put pressure on service providing companies: Ensure that companies to which
logistical work is outsourced –such as Ticketmaster– are held accountable to their
performance and are incentivised to achieve better results
d) Provide financial incentives to companies to do a good job: Either pay for the
service at the end or offer bonuses for performances exceeding expectations
e) Make it known that future contracts with such companies depend on the success
of current operations, unless such companies hold a monopoly over their niche
and are the only option.
Feasibility and Risk Analysis
- Large capital at disposal: Due to the success of the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift’s brand has
a lot of capital at its disposal. Because of this, the ressources for diversification are
available, and there is enough room for failure.
By diversifying her brand and investing into less volatile markets, as well as by holding supplier
companies accountable, Taylor Swift can achieve financial stability and gain a foothold in other
markets in order to further expand her business. Furthermore, PR issues relating to customer
services failures in the future will either not occur, or will not affect Taylor Swift’s image to such
an important degree.
