Marketing Books Worth Reading

Nine marketing books worth reading -- or giving. Consider one for the marketer in your life. Order most today from Amazon for arrival by Christmas. Have you read them before? Consider reading them again for a fresh look at your business in the new year. (I earn NO affiliate fees). Want to talk about them? Schedule a complimentary call with me.

Have a warm, cozy, and happy holiday!

This is Marketing

The newest book on the list is by Seth Godin, the best-selling author of 19 books, who has an extraordinary ability to dust off old ideas and make them feel fresh and relevant again. And in doing so, to make the reader see the same business with fresh, new eyes. This is Marketing is a delightful and insightful read that will appeal to a broad audience: the marketer who loves to read all things marketing (like me), someone with limited knowledge about marketing, or a classically trained marketer who wants to get excited about their profession all over again.

Note: hardcover will not be available until after Christmas. Until then, purchase on the Kindle or Audible. $15.91

Growth Hacker Marketing

Ryan Holiday has written a practical and tactical book on how to promote your business without a big budget. It starts with an explanation of product market fit, then provides tools and techniques to make your marketing programs testable, trackable, and scalable. It’s ideal for brands without blueprints: brands staking a claim in a new category for which there is no defined path to success. It’s loved by the hungry, the curious, and the driven. $12.29

Made to Stick

Written by two brothers, one a Stanford professor, the other a publisher, Made to Stick explains why some ideas survive and others die. Made to Stick includes techniques for capturing someone’s attention and keeping it, making someone care about your idea, and crafting a message in a way that will make it more memorable. It’s a fun, fascinating, and useful read. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to communicate a powerful idea. $14.88

Jump Start Your Business Brain

This book is the distillation of Doug Hall’s career in New Product Development at Procter and Gamble. It provides a scientifically proven framework for predicting in market success of an innovation. Some of the elements include “dramatic difference” and believability. Because of its scientific underpinnings, Doug’s book and his process are perfect for the data scientist who loves data but is rightfully skeptical of the value of asking consumers their opinions about new products. (Consumers are terrible predictors) It’s excellent for the intuitive marketer who needs to learn the disciplines of marketing, and indispensable to anyone repositioning their business for growth. $14.66

The New Positioning

Jack Trout and Al Ries first wrote about positioning in 1969. Their thesis was this: “positioning is simply concentrating an idea – or even a word – that defines the company in the minds of consumers.” The New Positioning is an update from their original work, and it includes when and how to reposition, the secrets to a great name, the power of simplicity, and more. While the transparency of the digital world has evolved marketing beyond just “perception,” it's still a fantastic, foundational read on positioning. One left. $8.97

Competitive Strategy

Published in 1980, Competitive Strategy provides tools and techniques for analyzing your industry and competition to help you change the playing field to your advantage. While over time we saw that it underestimated the importance of the consumer, it describes the “stuck in the middle strategy” that accurately predicted the demise of Sears. So for me, it remains a necessary read for the CEO as well as advanced practitioners in marketing, market research, and strategy. $22.84

To Sell Is Human

Dan Pink is a 4-time NY Times best-selling author with an uncanny ability to spot trends and write about them before anyone else. Pink's thesis is that we’re all in the persuasion business. To Sell Is Human provides context, principles, and tips for how to do it better, including the one-word pitch, the question pitch, and the rhyming pitch. This book is perfect for the non-traditional marketer or anyone who needs to persuade people and wants an entertaining, insightful, and useful read. $16.

Crossing the Chasm

Crossing the Chasm is the best book to explain how a new technology gets adopted. and why other, often more superior technologies, do not. While it’s derived from others work on the diffusion of innovations, nobody has made their principles more real and more accessible – still -- than Geoff Moore. For 5 years I commercialized technology for an innovation lab. By following its principles, we convinced users, customers, and an industry to adopt a new technology. Required reading for the technology marketer or any marketer pioneering a new category. $14.95.

The Hero & the Outlaw

One of the most under-rated marketing books, The Hero & the Outlaw helps explain why some candidates win, and others lose, why some brands have irrational customer loyalty and others stagnate. The reason? Stories -- they underlie most brands. But some stories resonate more powerfully than others. They unconsciously influence some of the best loved brands -- like Discovery Channel, Apple, and Nike. The Hero & the Outlaw is an excellent book for the intuitive marketer, the journalist, the campaign manager, or anyone in the business of storytelling. And in the information-rich world we live in, most of us are. $25.97.