8 Marketing Books to Read During Your Holiday Break

The holiday season always puts me in the mood for list making. So I thought I’d start my holiday list making with my fallback gift of choice: books. Here are eight marketing and business books that influenced me recently.

I’ve asked Mitch (cofounder of Interspire) to join me in sharing some of his favorite reads too. If you have marketing books you’d recommend, new or classic, feel free to leave a comment below.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Marketing Warfare by Al Ries and Jack Trout

An oldie but a goodie. The premise of this book is to go after your competitors as if you're conducting a military campaign. It talks about going after the market leader in a particular space and using all of your resources to do it. This book provides an interesting twist on more modern day marketing tactics and is a fascinating read, complete with examples of companies who've successfully implemented the tactics outlined in the book.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott


This book focuses on how a company can use social media marketing (such as blogs, podcasting and other viral marketing methods) to increase brand awareness and traffic to their website. Although basic in some areas, it's a good read if you're just starting out online or haven't yet looked into social media marketing as part of your marketing mix.



Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

This is the 1999 new classic that propelled Godin from his VP office at Yahoo! to rock-star marketer status. His message will surely remain timely for years to come: People are bombarded by too many messages. If you want to make a real connection, you need to get permission through an exchange known to many through direct marketing tactics—giveaways, discounts, contests, surveys. He offers great examples from the likes of American Express, Amazon, American Airlines, and more. The book is informative and fun to read. Godin’s style is what you want in a your hired marketing gun: the right mix of brash confidence and shrewd advice.

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

We have two by Godin in our little list. This book talks about why making your business different by being remarkable in one or more areas is so important - because most of your competitors wont do it. By being remarkable you get a competitive advantage, more referrals and more repeat buyers.




iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey S. Young and Willian L. Simon

This book talks about the rise and fall of Steve Jobs at the helm of Apple, then NeXT, then Pixar and back to Apple again. It details his almost obsessive fascination with making technology beautiful and usable and after reading this it's not hard to see why the iPhone is now the best selling mobile phone in the world and why the Mac is gobbling up a larger share of the desktop computer market every year.



The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille

Marketing consultant and psychoanalyst Rapaille is on retainer with a good percentage of the Fortune 50. He’s helped launch and redefine some of the best-known brands in the world through his own methodology for truly understanding what drives an audience to purchase or use a product based on their cultural understanding. In this book he shares his methodology and experience with phenomenal marketing stories. I was hooked on page one.


The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

For a number of years I’ve shared this book with colleagues and clients. If policing your brand is part of your working routine, I highly recommend taking a peek at this one. Neumeier understands brand; but even more relevant, he understands how to explain the principles to bridge the gap of strategic execution and creative, tactical development. He offers quick, simple, witty, powerful messages that drive home the nuances of brand development far beyond just logo and tagline.



The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management by Peter F. Drucker

The subtitle says it all. I believe this is one of the best survey books on business management available. Certainly Drucker was one of the best business management minds in the 20th century. If you’re a fan of his work, you’ll love this book. It was published as a Collins Business Essentials and just came out in paperback this year. It starts with articles from 60 years ago and spans much of the last 50 years, but so many of the classic business theories are just as powerful and true today, especially when Drucker is the one sharing the ideas with his intellect and laser insights.


Have you read any of the books above? What are your recommendations? Why not post a comment and share your thoughts with our community?

Hope to chat with you soon!