As they say, no-one plans to fail, they fail to plan. And this is never more true than with a catalogue campaign.

For the past 30 years, printed catalogues have been consistently one of the most effective sales drivers for major retailers. Today's catalogues are much more likely to contain customer-engaging, rich content rather than just traditional product and price.

Despite the production process being improved in terms of efficiency, quality, and best of all, cost, some retailers are overlooking the opportunity to include this proven marketing tool into their new more digitally-oriented marketing strategies.

This case study looks at how CAS client Howards Storage World changed their marketing strategy from product-centric to content-rich - and the results they achieved.

Here's an idea you might be able to work with when you're thinking about creating customer engagement - for your next catalogue, online web content, ad promotion - whatever.

A few years ago I worked for the retail division of a large entertainment company in California. Every week we would have a large marketing meeting involving 20 - 30 people. We would all show up with spreadsheets and presentations. Most of my week was dedicated to producing a report for that meeting.

With the spending power of Millennials set to overtake Boomers by 2016 we decided to take an ongoing look at what makes this group tick. Following on from last week's first instalment we look at some values Millennials share with Boomers as well as what Millennial Dads are doing that is different to their parents.

Stories are THE best way to engage your customers.

If a "picture paints a thousand words" then what does a video paint? - a whole story!

People solve problems with video (YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google - CAS Ed) and "well-crafted videos can do something for your business that nothing else can - replicate face-to-face interaction with you, your services and your brand."

Amazing how sometimes the seemingly most complex questions can be reduced to the fundamentals.

Marcus Sheridan came up with what the New York Times called "a revolutionary marketing strategy: answer customers' questions." So when Seth Price made this even simpler with an infographic, how could we not bring it to our readers' attention?

I've got it pinned up on my wall...