Arek Dvornechuck
Branding Expert
Top 15 Branding Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)
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In the ever-evolving world of business, creating a memorable and impactful brand is crucial for success.
Whether you are starting a new business or looking to refresh your existing brand, a great branding book can make all the difference.
Why should you read branding books?
Branding books offer invaluable insights, guidance, and strategies to help you create brands that will stand out in a crowded market.
They provide practical advice on how to connect with your target audience and enhance your marketing efforts.
These books are great for CEOs, designers, marketers, and business owners to improve their skills and grow professionally.
So, if you want to learn how to build a successful brand, reading branding books is very important.
In this blog, I'll share the top 15 best branding books of all time, to help you build a strong, and successful brand.
PS. Also, check out my other article—The top 15 best books for logo designers.
Designing Brand Identity is the latest edition of the top branding guide by Alina Wheeler and Rob Meyerson.
Simple, easy-to-understand book about creating strong brands that last.
This addresses the challenges faced by branding professionals, providing practical insights and a roadmap to success.
The book covers brand fundamentals, process basics, and case studies for easy understanding.
It includes 100+ branding subjects, 50+ new case studies, and content on emerging trends.
Moreover, the book features 700+ illustrations and 400+ quotes from branding experts, CEOs, and design gurus.
This book is a valuable resource for people who are overseeing company brands or teaching brand fundamentals.
If you are looking for a great branding book to master the art of branding, look no further than Designing Brand Identity.
The Brand Positioning Workbook by Ulli Appelbaum shares knowledge for crafting powerful brand positioning strategies.
An impressive workbook on creating powerful brand positioning strategies.
This book guides you through a clear plan using 26 proven methods for successful brand positioning.
The Brand Positioning Workbook offers clear explanations, inspiring questions, and practical exercises for brand positioning.
It provides valuable help in creating attractive, enduring, and compelling brands that stand out in today's competitive marketplace.
The book has a structured and creative approach to help you generate original branding ideas.
Overall, The Brand Positioning Workbook is great for enhancing brand positioning with a proven framework.
Carolina Kairos's The Branding Method offers over 25 hands-on methodologies to create powerful brands.
A valuable book with practical strategies for entrepreneurs, marketers, and creatives to develop strong brands.
It stands out for its straightforward approach, providing practical tools and strategies to innovate, design, and create successful brands.
The book covers key stages of branding including consumer analysis, brand platform development, and activation.
It comes with real-life examples, sketched-out drawings, and diagrams to help you understand the concepts easily.
This book helps will help you run your brand well and try new ideas for success.
Overall, The Branding Method is one of the best books to learn about creating great brands.
Turner Duckworth and Gyles Lingwood's book, I Love It. What Is It? shares insights on design and branding
This book provides unique insights into the power of instinct in brand design.
This book offers unique insights into the power of instinct in brand design.
I Love It. What Is It? features insights from design, business, and marketing leaders like Moira Cullen and Stefan Sagmeister.
It explores company beliefs and lessons they learned from working with brands like Amazon, Mcdonalds, and Caco-Cola.
You can learn valuable perspectives on creativity and successful brand secrets by reading this book.
I Love It. What is it? is a great branding book to understand brand identity dynamics.
Lean Marketing by Allan Dib shares knoweledge on how to get better results with simple marketing strategies.
A great book with tools and insights of simple, yet powerful marketing strategies.
Dib highlights the need for simplicity and effectiveness over complexity and aggression in this book.
Lean Marketing provides practical insights and tools for building a highly effective marketing system.
Dib's approach, outlined in this book, offers immediate traction and long-term success.
It comes with strategies to pivot from ineffective marketing practices to compelling ones.
You will learn how to create a strong product-market fit and conduct marketing with integrity in this book.
Lean Marketing is a valuable resource for businesses seeking tangible results without hype or pressure.
Jim Everhart is an experienced strategist and his book Brand Vision shares powerful marketing strategies to grow your business.
A valuable resource to understand how marketing drives business strategy effectively.
Jim shares practical tips and strategies from his four decades of experience to help align marketing efforts with broader business objectives.
Brand Vision shows that marketing isn't just about looks; it's a strong way to tell everyone, inside and out, what a company's plan is.
Additionally, it provides simple tools to link marketing plans with business goals, helping to close the gap bridging theory to action.
If you're seeking a resource to understand how marketing can drive business strategy effectively, Brand Vision is a great choice.
Brand Naming by Rob Meyerson helps you choose a name for your business showing how important a name is for defining identity.
The best branding book that helps you pick a memorable name for your business.
The book gives expert advice on creating good names, explaining what makes them good or bad.
You will learn how to come up with many name options and pick the best one, with interesting stories and facts included.
It guides you in avoiding trademark problems and mistranslations, providing practical advice to overcome naming challenges.
This is a great resource for anyone in need of a great name for their venture or for those curious about the art of brand naming.
In summary, Brand Naming is a must-read branding book for anyone who wants to come up with a name for their brand.
Donald Miller's Marketing Made Simple is an excellent guide for marketing professionals and small business owners.
A great branding book that will teach you how to master effective marketing strategies.
This book teaches you how to create a sales funnel to grow your business
Marketing Made Simple explains the three stages of customer relationships and offers a foolproof marketing plan.
It has practical tips to attract the right customers and make your brand more well-known through email campaigns.
You can also learn how to design a website that grabs attention and increases sales.
If you are looking for a branding book to learn effective marketing strategies, Marketing Made Simple is a great resource.
Dim Sum Strategy by Peter Wilken is an informative guide on creating stronger brands for today's customers.
A comprehensive guide on branding strategies that suit the todays market.
It gives you new ways to think about branding, with practical tools and strategies that are easy to use.
The author shares insights from years of experience with top brands, making the book relatable and practical.
This book will help you navigate the complexities of modern branding and adapt to today's competitive market.
Overall, Dim Sum Strategy is a great branding book for anyone looking to enhance their brand in today's fast-changing market.
Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller teaches business leaders how to connect with customers and grow their businesses.
Learning to use storytelling to simplify brand messaging and communicate value effectively.
This book helps to simplify brand messages, making the benefits of products or services clearer to customers.
Building a StoryBrand teaches about crafting compelling messages for various platforms using seven story points.
Miller highlights that it's important to figure out why customers buy things and make sure your message works well on different platforms.
Other than that, it presents practical techniques to transform how you communicate your brand's value.
Building a StoryBrand is great to learn about engaging customers and communicating brand’s unique value proposition effectively.
Hello, My Name Is Awesome by Alexandra Watkin offers valuable guidance on naming products or businesses.
A great practical guide that will help you to name a brand or a product.
This book stands out for its accessibility, making it easy for everyone to understand and achieve success in the naming process.
The book introduces the SMILE and SCRATCH Tests, offering a clear framework for evaluating brand names based on factors like and memorability.
It offers a variety of brainstorming tools and techniques to help you in generating great branding names.
Hello, My Name Is Awesome discusses how to avoid common pitfalls in branding but highlights their importance as well.
If you're looking to master the art of naming and make your brand stand out, Hello, My Name Is Awesome is a great branding book.
Start with Why by Simon Sinek will help you understand why some people and companies do so well.
An excellent book that describes how knowing your “why” can change everything for you.
Sinek tells stories and explains why knowing why you do things is super important in this book.
He talks about cool people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Steve Jobs, showing how they started with "why" and changed the world.
Sinek also shares his concept, The Golden Circle, as a blueprint for building organizations, leading movements, and inspiring people.
This book makes you think about what matters and how knowing your "why" can make life better.
Overall, Start with why is a great book for anyone who is looking for a book to understand their "why".
Branding: In Five and a Half Steps by Michael Johnson is an easy-to-follow book that helps you make brands that work.
A valuable resource that will give you an overview of all aspects of branding.
It breaks down everyday brands to their basic elements, showing how subtle influences can impact consumer decisions.
The book helps build brands by asking important questions and focusing on key elements like straplines and typography.
It offers over 1,000 illustrations showcasing successful corporate identities, providing tangible examples for readers to learn from.
Additionally, the book has generic templates for readers to apply these insights to their brand creation process.
This book provides also valuable insights for both beginners and experts in crafting effective brands.
If you're looking for a branding book to create your own
"The Brand Gap" by Marty Neumeier is an amazing branding book that explains how to build a brand in an easy and interesting way.
A great book that provides a high-level overview of what is branding.
This book brings together both strategic and creative approaches to brand-building.
The Brand Gap will teach you thedefinition of branding, five key disciplines, and why collaboration matters in branding.
It explores how design shapes the customer experience and provides practical tips on managing brands effectively.
Other than that, this book issuitabe for both beginners and experienced professionals in branding.
The Brand Gap is a great branding book for anyone who wants to understand how to build strong brands that connect with customers.
Positioning by advertising gurus Ries and Trout is a great marketing and branding book.
A great book on how to make your business special in a busy market.
It's special because it helps you overcome the difficulty of communicating with a skeptical, media-saturated public.
Positioning introduces the concept of creating a "position" in the customer's mind, considering company's strengths and its competitors.
It offers strategies for making an industry leader memorable and positioning a follower to fill a unique niche.
The book describes the importance of not letting a new product rely too heavily on an established one.
Additionally, the authors also give tips on how to win customers, plan strategies and pick the perfect product name.
Positioning is a great branding book for anyone looking to learn effective brand positioning.
Every brand strategist, CEO, and marketer needs continuous learning to build and sustain great brands.
A strong brand is essential for every business, big or small.
Effective branding is like making a true connection with customers, going beyond appearances to boost sales.
The above list of the 15 best branding books covers everything you need to know to build a strong brand.
Whether you're a beginner or looking to improve, these books will enhance your branding skills and help you create memorable brands.
Let me know if you know of any other great branding books in the comments section below.
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I'm a branding expert and graphic designer based in NY. I specialize in the development of brands: brand strategy, identity & web design. Need help with your project?—Get in touch
