Small Business Owner Responds Quickly to Capitalize on Taylor Swift-Fueled Sales

Everything
that
Taylor
Swift
touches
seemingly
turns
to
gold
–
especially
if
it’s
a
product
from
a
small
business.

Cassey
Ho,
founder
of
activewear
brand
Popflex,
recently
learned
this
lesson
when
Swift
was
seen
wearing
the
brand’s
purple
pirouette
skort
in
a
YouTube
Short.
Swift
also
seemingly
included
a
nod
to
the
skirt
in
her
song
“imgonnagetyouback.”
The
track
on
Swift’s
new
album,
The
Tortured
Poet’s
Department,
includes
the
lyric,
“Lilac
short
skirt,
the
one
that
fits
me
like
skin.”

Swifties
quickly
took
notice
of
this
implied
endorsement
of
Popflex’s
product,
immediately
selling
out
the
brand’s
supply.
Ho,
a
Taylor
Swift
fan
herself,
knew
that
she
needed
to
take
action
to
capitalize
on
the
massive
amount
of
attention
on
her
brand.

The
most
important
change
she
made
was
accepting
pre-orders
of
the
purple
pirouette
skort.
The
store
doesn’t
usually
accept
pre-orders,
but
she
is
also
working
closely
with
suppliers
to
make
sure
the
skirts
will
be
produced
and
shipped
as
quickly
as
possible.
She
also
added
“Cassey’s
Version”
to
the
product
name
and
mentioned
the
“imgonnagetyouback”
lyrics
in
the
product
description.

Aside
from
these
small
changes
and
posting
to
social
media,
Ho
and
the
Popflex
team
aren’t
doing
much
extra
to
promote
the
products.
They
understand
that
the
implied
endorsement
from
Swift
and
the
attention
the
brand
is
already
getting
from
her
fanbase
is
more
powerful
than
most
actions
they
can
take.
So
they’re
choosing
to
focus
efforts
on
fulfilling
orders
and
keeping
product
quality
high
to
satisfy
the
existing
demand.

However,
with
increased
attention
also
comes
increased
copycats.
Popflex
has
already
had
to
deal
with
numerous
brands
recreating
the
design.
Luckily,
Popflex
has
an
active
community
of
existing
fans
who
are
helping
to
spot
and
report
these
reproductions
and
spread
the
word
about
where
the
initial
design
came
from.

Ho

told
Inc.,
“The
community
is
doing
their
work
to
help
spread
the
word,
which
is
amazing.
There’s
kind
of
like
this
deeper
soul
to
Taylor
wearing
the
skirt.”

Taylor
Swift
herself
may
never
endorse
your
products
or
wear
them
in
a
video.
However,
small
businesses
can
periodically
find
success
due
to
viral
posts
or
endorsements
on
a
smaller
scale.
So,
having
systems
and
communities
in
place
to
act
quickly
can
help
you
capitalize
on
these
quick
bursts
of
attention
–
no
matter
the
source
or
scale.