Which marketing, design and brand books do you recommend on World Book Day?
The following books have been chosen by our Directors, Rachel Townsend Green and Johnny Woods, for their helpful advice and straightforward language.
1. The End Of Print by David Carson
Johnny chose this read as one of his all-time favourites!
Johnny said: "He is the Designer of the famous Ray Gun surf magazine that I had imported to me monthly during my college years. Not because I was into surf but because the design was so radical and inspiring. The End Of Print follows David Carson's career from skate and surf magazines to working with multi national brands."
"Often criticised for his approach from traditionalists, his style was hugely inspirational to me and I was lucky enough to meet him in early 1992 - he is a typographical genius who was brave enough to question and look at things differently."
2. Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online by Brian Halligan
Rachel picked this as one of her favourites. The book contains essential tools and resources that help build an effective marketing strategy and tips for organisations of all sizes looking to build a reputation. When consumer behaviors change, marketing must change with them.
Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online is a complete guide to attracting, engaging, and delighting customers online.
3. Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman
We are now living in a world with more than 100 brands of bottled water. Whether that’s good or bad, the real question is why we behave this way in the first place...
Why do we telegraph our affiliations or our beliefs with symbols, signs, and codes?
Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits contains twenty interviews with the world’s leading designers and thinkers in branding. The interviews contain spirited views on how and why humans have branded the world around us.
4. The Art Of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki & Peg Fitzpatrick
With more than 100 practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a ground-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. They guide you through the steps of building your foundation, amassing your digital assets, going to market, optimising your profile, attracting more followers and effectively integrating social media and blogging.
For beginners overwhelmed by too many choices, as well as seasoned professionals eager to improve their game, The Art of Social Media is full of tactics that have been proven to work in the real world, or as Guy puts it, “Great Stuff, No Fluff”.
5. Designing Brand Identity: 4th Edition by Alina Wheeler
A revised new edition of the bestselling toolkit for creating, building and maintaining a strong brand.
From research and analysis through brand strategy, design development through application design and identity standards, through launch and governance, Designing Brand Identity [Fourth Edition] offers brand managers, marketers and designers a proven, universal five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity.
6. Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Well, when Jay Z recommends a book to Oprah, we know it has to be something special! You're either a Purple Cow or you're not. You're either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.
In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It's a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.
So...
There you have it, that's enough reading material for even the biggest of bookworms out there! Whether you use it as office reading material or for skimming on the plane (some of us just never stop working!) we hope you enjoy our list of great reads!
Celebrate World Book Day this year and don't forget to check out the official website for events in your area and how to participate in the day's many activities.
Share your book recommendations with us on Twitter!
