Shopping for the upcoming school year is now in session—and customers are expected to spend more than ever on both back-to-school and back-to-campus supplies, apparel, and accessories.

It’s a slippery slope: As a retailer, media figure, or just a person with a social media account, you want to say something compelling and stand for something, but...you also don’t want to paint yourself into a box and only be about that one thing, especially as times and tastes change.

To not only survive—but thrive!—in today’s competitive retail environment, we were reminded at the CBUS19 retail conference that you have to (first) know who you are, so you can (second) do brave things that others can’t.