It’s all about how you judge “good enough.”
You’ll probably hear a lot about Taylor Swift this weekend. And, if the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl later tonight, you’ll probably see plenty of her down on the field celebrating with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
Look, Swift is no stranger to attention. She’s one of the most recognizable people on the planet. Everywhere she goes, people know who she is. Every time she tweets, people look for hidden clues about an upcoming album, or coded messages about her relationship. But, there was something Swift said earlier this week at a concert in Tokyo that deserves a little more attention.
You see, Swift is currently at the beginning of the international leg of her record-breaking concert tour, The Eras Tour. This week, she performed four shows in Tokyo. During Friday’s show, Swift spent a moment talking with the audience about her upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, which she announced during her acceptance speech at the Grammys last week.
“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” she told the audience. “I kept working on it throughout the U.S. tour, and when it was perfect–in my opinion, when it’s good enough for you–I finished it, and I am so, so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it.”
I suppose it’s remarkable to think that Swift spent two years working on this album. During that time, she toured across the United States–setting a record for the highest-grossing concert tour of all time–released a re-recorded version of her most popular album ever, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), released an entirely new studio album, Anti-Hero, and set the football world on fire by showing up at Kelce’s games.
But, I don’t think that’s the most interesting part of that quote. The part I think deserves more attention is Swift’s measure of when her album is good enough. “When it was perfect–in my opinion when it’s good enough for you,” she said. There’s an important connection between the first part of that sentence, and the last five words.
For Swift, the album needed to be perfect because it needed to be good enough for her fans. And she was willing to take the time to get to the point where she felt as though she was giving them what they deserved. That last part is important because one of the things Swift does better than almost anyone is understand her fans and give them what they want.
The reality is, good enough is a very hard thing to quantify. How do you know when something is good enough? There’s a temptation that everyone faces–especially on a deadline–to just push whatever you’re working on out the door. “It’s good enough,” you might be tempted to say. The question you should ask is, for whom?
It’s pretty clear Swift’s answer is that it has to be good enough for her fans. She is an incredibly savvy businessperson, but she’s also masterful when it comes to cultivating affection and loyalty with her fans. She does it by giving them exactly what they want, and what they deserve. She knows that she has set a high standard for them and, as a result, for herself. Living up to that standard is the linchpin of her brand.
This is someone who went on tour and gave three-hour performances where she sang pretty much every song her audience could ask for, and as a result, they were delighted. Her fans paid massive prices to see her perform live. Then, they paid for a ticket to see her concert in movie theaters, before paying to rent it on iTunes and Amazon Prime.
I guess the real question there is “Why is Taylor Swift so much better at this than Hollywood movie studios that have spent the last four years trying to figure out how to maximize their content without making everyone angry?” The answer is that she’s constantly focused on delighting her fans and giving them what they want, and they are happy to pay her for it.
It turns out that delighting your fans is very good for business.
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