The Life of a Marketer: What Taylor Swift Teaches Business Students About Branding

In Dr. Nichole Santee’s marketing and social media classes at the UTA College of Business, Taylor Swift isn't just a pop star, she’s a strategic brand.

“She really understands how to make her brand clear, but also consistent, which I think is something that so many people have a really hard time doing,” Santee said.

A “Swiftie” in and out of the classroom, Santee regularly uses Swift in her lectures as a real-world example of how modern brands operate. How they build loyalty, evolve over time and stay authentic while adapting to change.

For Santee, Swift is an “it” figure not just because of her stardom, but because of how she effectively communicates with her audience, one that, as Santee points out, Swift understands deeply.

“She’s writing music, yes for herself, but also for the people that follow her,” Santee said. “She’s not trying to write music for the people that she knows she’s never going to capture...you’re always going to market towards the people that you know you can convert.”

Dr. Santee at the "Eras Tour."

Swift’s evolution from country to pop mirrors the brand life cycle that marketing students study: introduction, growth, maturity and reinvention.

“She's really authentic, but she's also adaptable, which I think is really what makes a brand last and makes a brand so enduring,” Santee said. “You can't just do the same thing forever and expect it to still work. She changed, and it's in a good way, and companies have to do the same thing.”

Beyond the rebrands, narrative control is important to both Swift and brands alike. 

“She doesn’t let the industry dictate what she does. She takes ownership of it, and she really turned that into an engagement strategy,” Santee said. “You don’t always just want to be reacting to your audience. You want to lead your audience.”

Swift’s storytelling also offers a valuable lesson for students. Her songs often reflect deeply personal moments, but they also strike a universal chord.

“Fans see themselves in those moments,” Santee said. “We’ve all had ex-boyfriends where we’re like, throw that picture in the trash. We all have those moments where we just gotta shake it off.”

For brands, that means telling stories people can actually see themselves in.

“That story really doesn’t mean anything unless it has a level of connection in the audience that you’re speaking to,” she said. “If you’re authentic and you’re relatable, it’s kind of equal to having really loyal customers.”

These ideas show up not just in class discussion, but in assignment design. One idea Santee has considered is a role-play activity where students act as brand managers reacting to a Swift album drop by developing social campaigns, deciding whether or not to join the conversation and evaluating potential risks and rewards.

A shelf in Dr. Santee's office displaying her Taylor Swift memorabilia. 

Whether they’re analyzing loyalty, social strategy, or consumer psychology, she wants students to leave class understanding that great branding is more than logos and slogans.

“I always tell my students, there’s so much bad clutter out there,” Santee said. “We want to create the stuff that breaks through that, and the stuff that creates some sort of good for the world around us.”

And if that includes talking a little bit about Taylor Swift?

“All the better,” Santee laughed. “If we have fun, it’s always a nice little bonus.”