In ‘The Art of Impossible’, Steven Kotler makes the case for reading books over any other form of content. He highlights the time taken to research and write one vs. the time it takes you to read it.  

Blogs – 3 minutes of reading gets you 3 days of someone’s time and effort. Articles – 20 minutes gets you four months. Books – five hours gets you fifteen years of someone's expertise.

So I had to start with brand strategy book recommendations. After writing Rebrand Right I know firsthand the depth and rigour you put into writing a book and the other resources you pull in to enhance your thinking and experience (hence the 234 references at the back!)

So what sort of books should you read to get better at brand strategy? You need to read books around the edges. Not basic ones on what brands are, what brand strategy is. You know all this by now. The recommendations that follow help you go deeper, so dive right in. And if you're really starting from scratch, scroll down to the end for the best starter books.

Here's what I'd recommend you read in order to get better at brand strategy.

1. Brand Strategy Case Studies

Be aware that they are rarely called this! What you're looking for are stories, ideally from the perspective of CEOs, that show how changes in a brand strategy improved a brand and business. Here are five of the best.

1. Hit Refresh - Satya Nadella

2. Shoe Dog - Phil Knight

3. Grow - Jim Stengel

4. Let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman – Yvon Chouinard

5. Behind the Cloud - Marc Benioff

Note that Grow has received criticism for the way the research was conducted - ignore those parts - and what they say the brands stand for. Focus on the case studies - they are illuminating.

If you're working with a lot of startups I'd also recommend you look at:

6. Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love From Day One - Emily Heyward

It includes case studies from brands like Casper, Sweetgreen, Allbirds, Warby Parker and Glossier.

Also consider books that help to guide CEO success. You want brand strategy to be a conversation in the boardroom, so learn to talk their language. Try CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish The Best Leaders from The Rest; Dewar, Keller, Malhorta - McKinsey Partners.

2. Embedding brand strategy internally

When you really understand brand strategy, you understand that it's not just about guiding marketing and branding. it's just as much about engaging the whole organisation to deliver experiences that build the associations you want to stand for in people's minds (that's all a brand is after all, associations and assets! (More on that here)).

Read these books to understand this better.

1. Rebrand Right -how to refresh your brand and marketing to grow your business, Fairley & Robb

Rebrand Right is a practical guide to help you diagnose, then define and deliver changes to your brand, marketing and experience to grow your business.

It starts by helping you understand the four brand factors that drive growth and diagnose where your problem really lies. Then works through brand strategy, identity, marketing, implementation and experience, step-by-step. The implementation chapter is all about how to truly embed the strategy in the business based on our experience on close to 100 B2B and B2C brands. Yes - I co-wrote it but it's there to fill a critical gap in the market. It will help you fill any gaps you might have in understanding the journey from brand diagnosis, to definition, to delivery.

2. Fusion - How Integrating Brand And Culture Powers The World's Greatest Companies - Denise Lee Yohn

One of the best books I've seen on the practical steps you need to take to ensure that brand and culture are truly embedded within an organisation.

3. Reculturing - Design Your Company Culture To Connect With Strategy and Purpose For Lasting Success - Melissa Daimler

This one is really practical; from her experiences at Adobe,Twitter, WeWork, Udemy.

4. Win From Within - Build Organisational Change For Competitive Advantage - James Heskett

More academic, but full of data to prove out how culture impacts business success.

5. The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath

Particularly pertinent if you're working on a service brand but full of insight for any business wanting to truly have an impact on the customer experience.

3. Measuring, understanding and quantifying brand success

Perhaps what you're missing as a brand strategist is a bit of data around why it's important and why companies should invest in brand-building. Here's a summary that might immediately help you, and to go deeper consider reading these four.

1. Kantar's Blueprint for Brand Growth

2. Better Brand Health - Jenni Romaniuk

3. Managing Brand Equity - David Aaker 

4. How Brands Grow - Jenni Romaniuk, Byron Sharp

The last one should be on your list if you haven’t read it yet. It's the book you need to read if you want to work more long-term with clients helping them grow brands through marketing. All chapters are data-rich to back up their strong assertions. Part 1 is CPG heavy, Part 2 covers emerging markets, services, durables, new and luxury brands.  Kantar's Blueprint for Brand Growth is where I recommend you start though.  Alternatively, jump into Chapter 1 of Rebrand Right  where we summary a lot of this, avoiding all the jargon and helping you understand the four factors that have been proven to drive brand growth. (Get it for free here). And read chapter 7 where we cover what to measure after a rebrand to gauge the success of your project and your marketing.

Also keep an eye on work and reports produced by Les Binet and Peter Field, the IPA and System 1. Like this one on the Magic of Compound Creativity, explaining how consistency leads to creative quality, stronger brands and greater profits.

4. Human psychology and behavioural science

“I strongly encourage anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a brand consultant to get serious about human pyschology...aka Behavioural Economics, Design Thinking, Service Design, CX etc. etc. Brands being the thing that connects people and businesses. I have come across brand strategists who look down on the entire discipline of research / insight. Highly myopic IMHO. When reframed as the exploration of motivations, needs, desires, hopes, aspirations, fears and insecurities (as opposed to "testing the ideas to see which one people like best" in a viewing facility near Slough) to inspire brand building, then understanding and engaging with customers becomes an essential skill of any brand strategist." Ned Colville

Recommendations in this area:

1. Alchemy - Rory Sutherland

2. Anything by Orlando Wood - particularly Look Out for the importance of emotion in branding building 

3. Anything by Richard Shotton - like The Illusion of Choice

4. Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahnemann

5. A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness - Roger L Martin.

5. Expanding your skills - brand architecture, naming, design

Perhaps you really want to expand your skills as a strategist - into things like naming, identity or brand architecture.

 The best book on naming I've found is:

Brand Naming: The Complete Guide to Creating a Name for Your Company, Product, or Service - Rob Meyerson

Rob also ran a masterclass on brand naming as part of Brand Strategy Academy. Other masterclasses in there include ones on embedding brand strategy in the business, how to brand your design agency and brand architecture.

For books on brand strategy into design my favourites are:

1. Branding in 5 and a half steps - Michael Johnson 

2. Designing Brand Identity - Rob Meyerson and Alina Wheeler.

3. Building Distinctive Brand Assets - Jenni Romaniuk

“I also learn from reading books by designers (old and young; graphic, interaction and beyond): they often write in profound ways about their work and I find familiar brands and objects take on new meaning once the ideas and people behind them are revealed. As an example (it sounds a little on the frivolous side), over Christmas I read a book called 'Understanding Comics' by Scott McCloud and it absolutely blew my mind. There's stuff in there about purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft and surface which can be extrapolated to branding. And then there's fiction... Where would we be without that?” Nick Liddell

6. Best brand strategy starter books if you feel you've lost your way a bit

Here's the top ones to get you back on track:

1. Rebrand Right

The book covers the whole rebranding process but if you just want a handle on how to write a brand strategy in a way that avoids all the jargon and true engages with the business you just need to devour chapter 3.  But suggest you also read chapters 1 and 2 to ensure you understand how a brand strategy drives growth and what sort of research you need to do to inform the strategy.

2. You are a Fish - Nick Liddell

Don't be put off by the title - it's the best pure brand strategy book out there in my mind. And it's free here online.

3. The Brand Book by Daryl Fielding. Super on the fundamentals and includes helpful tools.

4. RED Marketing, The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands, Greg Creed and Ken Muench Great case studies, process and tools - particularly for consumer brands (it's written by the former CEO and CMO of Yum Brands who own KFC and Taco Bell, among others).

Marty Neumeier’s work is often recommended -  particularly Zag and The Brand Gap - but these may be a bit basic for you if you're an experienced strategist.  And Dan White writes and illustrates a set of really short and accessible, insight-packed guides, like ‘The Smart Branding Book.’

 7. Business strategy books

It helps to understand the difference and cross-overs from business to brand strategy.

Try these for starters!

1. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - Richard Rumelt

2. No Bullsh*t Strategy - Alex Smith

3. Playing to Win - A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin

Ready for something a bit shorter?

8. Podcasts to help you get better at brand strategy 

1. Uncensored CMO.
2. Just Branding (I share my brand strategy framework in this linked episode, and in more detail in this free mini course here).
3. Unicorny. (Here's my two episodes on this one).
4. The Marketing Meet Up.
5. Marketing Week Podcasts
6. Kantar: Futureproof.
7. Siegel + Gale Says: gathers insight from across the global Siegel+Gale network on the issues and trends shaping the branding landscape.
8. Lippincott CMO Heather Stern’s podcast: Icons in the Making.
9. Jim Stengel: The CMO Podcast  -  on the topic of purpose-driven brands.
10. On Strategy Showcase: more advertising and marketing campaign focused, but cherry pick through the fantastic conversations on here.
11. Dig Insights: Dig In (I share my thoughts on practical brand strategy in this one). Their focus is insights and research.

9. Newsletters and subscriptions to help you get better at brand strategy

I publish Brand Strategy Smarter most weeks for free – sharing with you my learnings on how to, well, you’ve guessed it...