If you’re asking yourself:

“Where can I learn how to do brand strategy?”

You’re definitely in the right place, because with my top picks, the world is your oyster.

Below, you fill find my top resources for each category starting with online courses, to books, blogs, podcasts, frameworks, brand management software and more.

Use the list below to skip to the most relevant category of brand strategy resources for you.

Best Brand Strategy Resources:

1. Brand Strategy Courses
2. Brand Strategy Certificates
3. Brand Strategy Books
4. Brand Strategy Podcasts
5. Brand Strategy Communities
6. Brand Strategy Blogs
7. Brand Strategy Frameworks

A several years ago I set out to learn brand strategy, so I’ve checked out every book, course, workshop, framework and worksheet available out there—everything I could find on the internet.

You will learn about different elements of brand strategy (brand purpose, mission vision, values etc.) as well as how to actually run brand strategy workshops, how to sell brand strategy, how to draw insights, how to present it to your clients and get approval, how to translate strategy into design etc.

In this article, I put together all of the best resources to learn brand strategy in one place, in order to help you find something for yourself.

There are so many designers that don’t do brand strategy simply because they find it daunting.

Hopefully, my list will make it easy for you, save a tone of time on doing research and ultimately supercharge your career.

Just bookmark this page for future reference and come back whenever you’re hungry for more knowledge.

1. Brand Strategy Courses

There are many places where you can find courses on the subject of brand strategy development.

There are plenty of brand strategy courses available exclusively on their author’s websites (just like my own).

When you search for “brand strategy” on Skillshare it shows over 400 courses!

You can also check out other places to look for courses, like: Udemy or Coursera.

Here's my selection of the best courses straight from top brand strategy experts.

11 Best Brand Strategy Courses Online:

1. Strategy Sprint by Scott Galloway—$750
2. Brand Strategy Guide by Arek Dvornechuck—$495
3. BrandFluency by Kaye Putnam—$297
4. StoryBrand Framework by Donald Miller—$275
5. WHY Discovery by Simon Sinek—$150
6. Archetypal Branding on Udemy—$95
7. Brand Strategy Class by Mark Pollard—$19
8. Strategic Brand Management by CurtinX—FREE (certification $199)
9. Give All by Matthew Manos—FREE
10. Brand Strategy Bootcamp by Sophia Chang—FREE
11. The Most Practical Guide To Brand Strategy—FREE

I’ve sorted them by the price—from the most expensive to the cheapest ones, to totally free courses.

I think that online courses are the best way to level up your skillset—they give you the freedom to learn anytime, anywhere.

Also check out my other article where I describe some of them in more detail.

2. Brand Strategy Certificates

If you prefer taking a course that comes with a certificates—here’s my selection of "best of".

While the above list was about self-paced video courses, this list is mostly about that you attend live and get certified.

Here’s my list of top 10 brand strategy courses that come with certificates.

11 Top Brand Strategy Certificates:

1. StoryBrand Certified Guide with Donald Miller—$10,000
2. Level C with Marty Neumeier—$1,950
3. Planning Dirty Academy—$1,297
4. The Brand Advantage by Kaye Putnam—$997
5. Designing Strategy by IDEO U—$799
6. Brand and Marketing Research Strategy by IIMBx—$447
7. Strategic Brand Management by CurtinX—$199
8. Strategic Brand Management by Eric Yeboah—$95
9. Brand Identity and Strategy by María Diéguez—$49
10. Strategic Brand Management by Advertising Week—$39
11. Create A Brand Strategy by Lindsay Pedersen—$35

Why would you need a certificate?—Show it off on your website or put it up on your LinkedIn profile to get more credibility and attract better clients.

Becoming a certified brand strategist will definitely make a difference if you're looking for a job.

Most of these trainings are available online, but some of them you can also attend in-person.

Either way, participating in a live class can really make a difference and speed-up on your learning curve.

3. Brand Strategy Books

If you’re more into reading and figuring out things for yourself, then grabbing one of the best books on brand strategy will do you good. (Also check out my list of Top 10 Branding Books)

Reading books was indeed my favorite way of learning brand strategy—this is because book authors are usually written by some of the best experts on the subject.

After all, any fool can create an online course, but not everyone can write a good book.

This makes books a great source of knowledge that you can access fast and easy, either in physical or digital form.

24 Best Books to Learn Brand Strategy

1. Brand Strategy Canvas by Patric Woods—$10
2. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries—$13
3. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt—$13
4. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller—$15
5. What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn—$17
6. BrandFix by Kady Sandel—$15
7. Storategy by Matt Davies—$15
8. Building Strong Brands by David A. Aaker—$16
9. The Brand Mapping Strategy by Karen Leland—$18
10. The Invincible Company by Alexander Osterwalder—$19
11. Fusion by Denise Lee Yohn—$19
12. Dim Sum Strategy by Peter Wilken—$20
13. Creative Strategy by Douglas Davis—$20
14. Managing Brand Equity by David A. Aaker—$21
15. The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier—$24
16. Activate Brand Purpose by Scott Goodson—$25
17. Value Proposition Design by Alexander Osterwalder—$28
18. Cultural Strategy by Douglas Holt—$30
19. The Hero And The Outlaw by Margaret Mark—$30
20. How to Launch A Brand by Fabian Geyrhalter—$35
21. Building Distinctive Brand Assets by Jenni Romaniuk—$35
22. Branding: In Five and a Half Steps by Michael Johnson—$42
23. Strategy Is Your Words by Mark Pollard—$45
24. Beloved Brands by Graham Robertson—$50

Typing “brand strategy books” on Amazon will result in over 5,000 results!

That can be quite overwhelming, especially when you just look for a few good recommendations.

Besides, reading books can be beneficial to your health, especially considering the fact how much time designers spend in front of the computer.

Taking a break from looking at your monitor can be very beneficial to your health—just grab a coffee and dive into my list of top brand strategy books.

Most of the books above are also available in digital form—as ebooks on Kindle or Apple Books.

Some of them are also available as audiobooks, so if you don’t enjoy reading, you can buy an audio version.

4. Brand Strategy Podcasts

If audiobooks seem to be too boring for you to listen to, then podcasts definitely won’t.

By subscribing to some of the best podcasts about brand strategy, you can learn from top expert—firsthand and for free!

I like to listen to my favorite podcasts on the train or in the gym, it’s my secret way to learn in what I call “NET”—no extra time.

Top 6 Best Podcasts About Brand Strategy

1. On Branding Podcast by Arek Dvornechuck
2. Let’s Talk Branding by Stef Hamerlinck
3. How Brands Are Built by Rob Meyerson
4. The Brand Strategy Podcast by Bonnie Joy Marie
5. Solving for B° by BrandExtract
6. The Extraordinary Podcast by Tobias Tahlberg

Not all podcast are going to be full with practical knowledge, some of them are focused while others may be in the form of more loose conversations.

When I interview branding experts on my podcast, I always try to get them to reveal some of key tips and secrets about brand strategy.

5. Brand Strategy Communities

Communities are places like FG Groups where you can learn from other people, share your thoughts, get feedback and much more.

It’s always good to connect with like-minded people, this will help you accelerate your growth as a brand strategist.

3 Best Online Communities To Learn Brand Strategy

1. Sweathead, Strategy With Friends—FREE
2. Brand Building Community—FREE
3. Branding Experts Community—FREE

These group are often hosted by some of the above mentioned course authors, so that you can get your questions asked by professionals.

I also recommend searching for “brand strategy” on Clubhouse, where you can find like-minded audience sharing thought in audio form.

6. Brand Strategy Blogs

Another great way to learn brand strategy for free is by reading some of the top industry blogs.

Reading a 2,000 word article on the internet seems much less intimidating that reading a 200,000 word book.

Here’s my list of top blogs that go into the subject of brand strategy:

5 Best Blogs to Learn Brand Strategy Online

1. On Branding Blog by Arek Dvornechuck
2. Let’s Talk Branding Blog by Stef Hamerlinck
3. How Brands Are Built by Rob Meyerson
4. Marks And Maker Journal by Melinda Livsey
5. Brand Strategy Archives by ColumnFiveMedia

There are plenty of blogs about logo design and branding (visuals), but only some of them actually talk about brand strategy specifically.

My list includes only those that have at least a few great articles about brand strategy and brand building.

7. Brand Strategy Frameworks

Each brand strategist will have their own, unique way of working with clients.

That’s why there are so many different brand strategy frameworks, checklists, models and templates available on the market.

Some of them are more comprehensive than others, so it’s vital to check them all out before you find something that works best for you.

27 Brand Strategy Frameworks & Templates

1. SWOT Analysis by Albert Humphrey
2. The Three-Hour Brand Sprint by Jake Knapp
3. The 9-Step Brand Strategy Framework by Arek Dvornechuck
4. Value Proposition by Geoff More
5. Unique Selling Proposition by Rosser Reeves
6. The 5 Whys by Sakichi Toyoda
7. The 4 C’s Framework
8. The Four Points Framework by Mark Pollard
9. Brand Strategy Made Simple Workbook
10. Brand Strategy Template Checklist
11. Brand Equity Model by Kevin Way Keller
12. The Benefit Ladder by Philip Kotler
13. The Brand Spectrum by Gist Brands
14. The Brand Key Model
15. The Brand Pyramid by Kevin Lane Keller
16. The Pyramid of Advantage by Mark Pollard
17. Brand Centered Management by Peter Wilken
18. The 4 D’s Process by Peter Wilken
19. The Brand Mapping Process by Karen Leland
20. The Johari’s Window Model
21. Four Corners Model by Michael Porter
22. SMART BHAGs by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
23. The Value Proposition Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder
24. Unique Branding Proposition by Karen Timber Leland
25. Brand Strategy Kit by Egle Karalyte

The list above includes some of the best brand strategy frameworks I came across (including my own).

Most of this links will lead you to books or online courses—this is because authors usually reveal those frameworks in there.

However, you can search for their social media to learn more about the frameworks and exercises they use when doing strategy.

A True AI Brand Strategy Assistant

I just released beta version of my app—an AI-powered brand strategy assistant.

The tools is voice-enabled so that you can have a conversation with the A.I. like if you were talking to a real human being.

The A.I. will wall you through my framework, suggest ideas, and once you approve them—it will fill out the slides for you!

Check out my quick demo video on YouTube to see how it works:

Currently I'm giving away free trial to my customers, so if you bought my brand strategy course (or any other course)—send me an email for free 15 min trial.

Conclusions

There are countless places where you can find branding resources – some of them are good, others not so much.

Picking the right resource for you is not an easy task, so I've tried to help in navigating the variety of options that you have.

Whether you’re looking for tools to work on your brand strategy, or develop one for your client—my list contains everything you need to get you up and running.

This is the ultimate list of brand strategy resources for creatives who want to become more strategic with their work and CEO’s who want to build brands the strategic way.

These resources are perfect for start ups, small businesses, brand designers and everyone who want to learn how to develop brand strategy.

My stack of 101+ brand strategy resources will help you learn from variety of places, so that you can compare all your options and choose something that you like.

Did I miss anything? Do you have a brand strategy resource recommendation?—Let me know.

Feel free to drop me an email at arek@ebaqdesign.com or in the comments below.

PS. Also check out my other article about brand strategy examples.