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Taylor Swift is dead. Long live Taylor Swift.

So much for shaking it off. After Taylor Swift's initial foray into "official" pop, 2014's earworm-infested "1989," it seems the haters have triumphed, leading everyone's favorite girl "on the bleachers" to embrace her inner mean girl.

At least, that would be the pop psychology take. Many of us in marketing, however, recognize Ms. Swift to be a cunning, calculating positioning savant, and the new, edgy, and angry Taylor is nothing but a brand refresh.

But before I get to the three takeaways for your brand, here's a little catch-up for those of you who don't live and die by her Fourth of July parties.

Act I: Erosion

The two years that followed the drop of "1989" were a roller coaster for the Swift brand. High points included earning Billboard's recognition for the best-selling album of 2014, a song-for-song homage recorded by indie darling Ryan Adams, a victory over Apple regarding streaming rights, and an Album of the Year Grammy.

But then... the fall. Kimye recordings. Spats with Katy over Twitter. Hiddleston "I ? TS" T-shirts. Criticism for failing to back a presidential candidate. A music video that included more supermodels than a Prêt-à-Porter runway.

It all seemed incredibly off-brand for someone who positioned herself as the lovestruck girl next door, cuddler of cats and BFF of her parents. I mean, this was the same girl who delivered Christmas presents in person to geeky uberfans, right?

Yes. That was the girl.

And that was the problem.

Ms. Swift recognized she had to grow up. And like the omnipresent snakes on her social feeds, she needed to shed her skin. Erode to evolve.

Act II: Evolution

To make room for the "new" Taylor, she needed to "kill" the old. Thus far, she's done this in a variety of ways, including deleting her social media histories and releasing an initial single with the explicit lyric: "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now./Why?/Oh, 'cause she's dead!"

Ms. Swift has largely destroyed her old iconography with mightily produced, heavy-on-the-subtext, "I don't give a ____" music videos (and in the case of "Look What You Made Me Do," literally piling up her Ghosts of Albums Past). She's also eliminated her single most paparazzi-baiting characteristic and put her love life on mute. , And, finally, she has silenced one-time critics of her nebulous politics by making a strong showing on the witness stand of her recent sexual assault trial.

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Three Takeaways for Marketers From the Repositioning of Brand Taylor Swift

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Katie L. Fetting

Katie L. Fetting is VP, creative director of TeamWorks Media and a digital marketing professional specializing in creative strategy. She has over a decade of experience in marketing, journalism, and the entertainment business, building brands via attention-getting content strategies and unique brand positioning.

Twitter: @KatieLFetting

LinkedIn: Katie L. Fetting