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Hard Profitability Growth Strategy

Taylor's New Era

#Media & Entertainment
ProHub Comment

This case tests the candidate's ability to build a profitability model in a non-traditional industry (live entertainment) while incorporating qualitative risk analysis into the final recommendation. It requires both quantitative rigor (calculating ticket and merchandise revenues with multiple variables) and strategic thinking about how risks and brand considerations factor into decision-making beyond pure profit maximization.

Estimated Time 38 minutes
Difficulty Hard
Source Bauer
42 / 100
Your client is Taylor Swift, the most popular singer/songwriter globally. She has reached out to you for help regarding her Eras Tour. She has just finished a 50 week long domestic Eras Tour covering almost every major city in the United States and wants to know what her next move should be. She has decided that she wants to continue the tour but does not know where to go next so her question to you is, should she add an extension to her domestic tour or should she reach out and begin an international tour?

Clarifying Information

  1. For sake of this case, we are only measuring profit from ticket sales and merch sales at the concerts. The increase in streaming of her music is immaterial to this case.
  2. Taylor’s goal for this case is to maximize profit while delivering the best quality performance to her fans as possible.
  3. If the candidate asks about number of shows, length of either tour, total weeks, etc that is all on the slide after the next.
Mock Interview
Interviewer

Your client is Taylor Swift, the most popular singer/songwriter globally. She has reached out to you for help regarding her Eras Tour. She has just finished a 50 week long domestic Eras Tour covering almost every major city in the United States and wants to know what her next move should be. She has decided that she wants to continue the tour but does not know where to go next so her question to you is, should she add an extension to her domestic tour or should she reach out and begin an international tour?

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

AI Score
Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
Practicing...
Score coming soon
Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

Taylor Swift needs to decide between extending her domestic Eras Tour or launching an international tour. The candidate must calculate profitability from ticket and merchandise sales for both options, then assess how various risks (overworking, infrastructure, security, public health, terrorism, overcrowding) affect the recommendation, ultimately justifying their choice between the higher-profit but higher-risk international option versus the lower-profit but lower-risk domestic extension.

Key Insights:

  1. Profitability calculations must account for both ticket revenue (quantity × price × utilization rate × profit margin) and merchandise revenue (attendance × purchase rate × spend × margin)
  2. Risk assessment is qualitative but material to the decision—a lower-profit option can be justified if risks are significantly lower and could impact brand or artist wellbeing
  3. International tour offers ~$400M more profit ($2B vs $1.6B) but faces higher risks except for crime/security (likely due to US gun violence statistics), requiring mitigation strategies for operational feasibility
  4. Great recommendations connect risks to business impact, such as how overworking affects brand image or how infrastructure failure affects profitability, not just the risks themselves