nct messaging, focusing on the customers you already have and creating unique experiences. Stand for nothing and sell to no one Marcus Murphy, co-founder and CEO of 5ive Media, advocates that “the future of marketing is an opportunity for us to slow down to speed up.” For Murphy, the most effective brand marketers on the planet convey to the consumer that they understand how they feel and relate to where they are coming from. “Your job is to be the vehicle between people’s before state and their after state… You need to know where people are, and you better know where they want to go,” explained Murphy. But this kind of deep connection between a brand and consumer requires strong messaging that leaves no room for question or doubt.  “No one likes lukewarm companies, they want to know what you believe, they want you to be definitive,” said Murphy. This sentiment was echoed by Simon Beard, founder of Culture Kings, “if you try and sit lukewarm in the middle, so often you’ll end up in no man’s land – people do not care about your brand.” “The thing I understood is to be able to get someone to love your brand, some people are going to dislike it or even hate it and that is fine,” Beard added. According to Murphy, creating a message that people can insert and buy themselves into requires deep market research and precise deployment. “If you do it all right, and you get [consumers] from where they were to where they want to be, they will become advocates for your business,” stated Murphy. Sell feelings, not products  This notion of brand advocates put forward by Murphy was seconded by panellist Natalie Peat, COO of Eco Modern Essentials, who is focused on selling to existing consumers with the prospect of creating loyal fans. “The reality is getting a new customer through the door is incredibly difficult, that you already have customers that have bought from you that already love you and want to come back,” said Peat. “That community and making the customers feel welcome when they purchase from you on when they engage with your brand is super important,” she added While new customer acquisition is important the industry experts at Retail Fest were more concerned with customer retention and cultivating a brand community. Keynote speaker Beard spoke about how Culture Kings has been focused on building community in-store since its founding by creating magical moments that leave lasting impressions. “We leverage our stores to build our brand, create the theatre of emotion and leverage that through online,” said Beard. Whether you’re selling online or offline, retailers need to be trading on emotion, not products. For Nick Gray, retail specialist, this requires shifting away from the product you are selling and instead asking ‘what is the feeling that we are selling?’,” said Gray. “Because once you figure that out, then you’ve really got to start to build your community around that,” he added. Brian Walker, retail consultant, emphasised that even though retail is moving towards immersive experiences that blend physical and digital environments, it needs to remain grounded in the emotional human experience. Despite encouraging retailers to be bullish about adapting and integrating new technology like AI, VR and the Metaverse into consumer experiences he still maintained, “At the end of the day, retail will still always be at its heart, a human experience.” “Because as you heard me say we are social by instinct, and it’s the ability to capture its various aspects, the heart of what it is to be human and then build that immersive experience around it,” said Walker.