Are you looking to learn brand strategy online?

We’ve put together a huge library of the best brand strategy resources, both free and paid, to help you become more strategic with your work — perfect for creatives, designers, CEOs and startups.

These brand strategy resources include top courses, certificates, books, podcasts, communities, blogs, frameworks, insights and more.

You will discover the many different elements of brand strategy (brand purpose, values, positioning, differentiation, etc.) as well as how to run brand strategy workshops, how to sell brand strategy, brand strategy examples and much more.

Now let’s jump into the Ultimate List of Brand Strategy Resources.

Best Brand Strategy Resources

Click to jump to your preferred section:

• Brand Strategy Courses
• Brand Strategy Certificates
• Brand Strategy Books
• Brand Strategy Podcasts
• Brand Strategy Communities
• Brand Strategy Blogs
• Brand Strategy Frameworks
• Brand Strategy Insights

Jacob’s Top 10 Resources to Learn Brand Strategy

How do you learn brand strategy? Where do you even start?

It can be overwhelming knowing with all the information (and misinformation) online.

This is why I have put together a shortlist of my top 10 brand strategy resources. This is what I would tell my younger self if I were just starting out.

1. Get to know brand

• Understand what brand is and is not. Start with this video. Then browse the Brand Master Academy Blog & content at The Futur.
• Get the books Designing for Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler and ‘Brand Gap‘ by Marty Neumeier
• Watch videos online: TheFutur has a series with Melinda Livsey documenting her journey into brand strategy

2. You’re hooked, now what?

• Read more books: Get ‘Zag‘ by Marty Neumeier and Branding in 5.5 Steps by Michael Johnson
• Listen to podcasts such as our very own JUST Branding or any of these top branding podcasts
• Join a community focused on brand strategy such as Brand Strategy Community. View all communities. 
• Read more brand strategy articles. I recommend the Brand Master Academy Blog but you can find more branding blogs here.

3. Go down the rabbit hole

• Take a brand strategy course(s): I recommend Brand Master Secrets but I’ve reviewed many more brand strategy courses here.

4. Level Up & Become a Top 1% Brand Consultant

If you’re been in branding for a while or want to go all in, I would recommend Tobias Dahlberg’s Certified Brand Consultant course which is more focused on the business side of brand building.

Brand strategy is not about frameworks, it is about practice. Keep practicing.

Brand Strategy Courses

Want to know how to learn brand strategy online so you can bring more value to your clients?

We have reviewed all the best brand strategy courses in detail on a seperate post but here is a brief overview of the most notable courses online from top online brand strategy experts.

10 Best Brand Strategy Courses Online

Course	By	Length	Cost
Brand Master Secrets	Brand Master Academy	120 Videos, 20 Hours	$695
CORE	The Futur	15 Videos, 4 hours	$489-$1729
Activate Your Strategic Brain	Stef Hamerlinck	8 Hours	$299
eResonaid	Fabian Geyrhalter	15 Videos, 1.5 Hours	$649-$949
Story Brand (SB7)	Donald Miller	10 Hours	$275
LEVEL C	Marty Neumeier	1-2 Days In Person	$1060-$1950
Brand Strategy Class	Mark Pollard	1.5 hours	Free (2 week trial)

The brand strategy courses shown above are the one’s we have reviewed in detail but there are many strategy focused courses popping up all the time such as:

• Certified Brand Consultant by The Future Academy — $5000+
• Strategy Sprint by Scott Galloway — $875
• BrandFluency by Kaye Putnam — $297
• WHY Discovery by Simon Sinek — $150
• Archetypal Branding on Udemy — $20
• Preparing and Running a Strategic Brand Workshop with Exercises – Free (2 week trial) or $10

10 Best Free Brand Strategy Courses & Resources

Want to learn brand strategy for free online? There are a number of resources available:

• Give All by Matthew Manos – 9 toolkits and 25 worksheets with video walk throughs
• 1 Day Brand Sprint – A free interactive board to help define your brand, in one day.
• Brand Development & Planning Board by Dan Wilkinson — A few tools to help define your brand
• Brand Strategy Bootcamp by Sophia Chang – Free
• Strategic Brand Management by CurtinX – Free (certification $199)
• Skillshare – Type in ‘brand strategy’ into their search (Includes 2 weeks free trial)
• Strategyzer – 30+ downloads & videos that you can use to better design, test, and assess your business
• The Futur’s YouTube Channel – See their video on How to become a brand strategist
• Free Core Values Worksheet – A free download to help define your core values
• The Future Academy – A number of free trainings on brand building

Free live videos with brand strategy experts:

I’ve had a number of live conversations with top brand strategy experts, all linked below:

Stephen Houraghan & I answer all your brand strategy questions in two videos:

• Your Brand Strategy Questions Answered – Ep 1
• Brand Strategy Questions FAQ – Answered – Ep 2

I also spoke with Fabian Gehyrhalter about his course eResonaid and his approach to building brands strategically:

• Fabian Gehyrhalter On How to Learn Brand Strategy

And also with Melinda Livsey on how to sell brand strategy

• How to Sell Brand Strategy 2019
• How to Sell Brand Strategy & Workshop Best Practices 2022

And Tobias Dahlberg on how to become a top 1% brand consultant.

• Brand Strategy Breakthrough with Tobias Dahlberg

Also check out our very own JUST Branding Podcast. Each episode goes deep into the details of the brand building process, with professional insights, actionable tips and resources to help you build better brands.

Brand Strategy Certificates

If you’re wanting a brand strategy course that comes with a certificate, here are the best options. Many of these resources are live experiences vs online self-paced videos. They are ranked in no particular order.

10 Best Brand Strategy Certificates

• StoryBrand Certified Guide with Donald Miller — $10,000
• Certified Brand Consultant by The Future Academy — $5000+
• LEVEL C with Marty Neumeier – $1950
• Brand Master Secrets by Brand Master Academy — $675
• The Brand Advantage by Kaye Putnam—$997
• Designing Strategy by IDEO U — $799
• Brand and Marketing Research Strategy by IIMBx — $447
• Strategic Brand Management by CurtinX — Free or $199 with certificate
• Strategic Brand Management by Eric Yeboah — $95
• Create a Brand Strategy on LinkedIn — Free month

Brand Strategy Books

There is an overwhelming number of branding & brand strategy books out there, thankfully we’ve narrowed down the best for you here.

If you’re short on time, we highly recommend the app Blinkist as they summarize books into 15 minute audio or text files. We’ve even compiled a list of our top 20 books for designers & creatives on Blinkist.

20 Best Books to Learn Brand Strategy

• The Brand Gap (also Zag, Flip & Scramble) by Marty Neumeier *Highly recommended*
• Branding in 5.5 Steps by Michael Johnson *Highly recommended*
• Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller *Highly recommended*
• Creative Strategy & the Business of Design by Douglas Davis *Highly recommended*
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek *Highly recommended*
• Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind by Al Reiss & Jack Trout
• This is Marketing by Seth Godin
• Burn Your Portfolio by Michael Janda
• Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns
• Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler
• Building Distinctive Brand Assets by Romaniuk
• Building Stronger Brands by David Aaker
• The Win Without Pricing Manifesto by Blair Enns
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber
• Brutally Honest by Emily Ruth Cohen
• Bigger Than This by Fabian Gehyrhalter
• How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
• Brand Fix by Kady Sandel
• Storategy by Matt Davies
• For more, see our list of the best brand strategy books

Brand Strategy Podcasts

If audio is your preferred way to learn brand strategy online, then jump into a podcast or audio book.

These are some of the best podcasts that focus on brand and brand strategy and the best part? It’s all free.

10 Top Podcasts to Learn Brand Strategy

• JUST Branding with Jacob Cass & Matt Davies
• Let’s Talk Branding by Stef Hamnerlink
• The Extraordinary Podcast with Tobias Dahlberg
• Hitting The Mark by Fabian Geyrhalter
• Brand Strategy Podcast B is for BonnieDesign
• Logo Geek by Ian Paget
• How Brands Are Built by Rob Meyerson
• Business Wars by David Brown
• More branding podcasts

Brand Strategy Communities

Are you looking for like-minded strategists, designers & creatives? Here are some of the best brand strategy communities online.

10 Best Brand Strategy Communities to Learn Brand Strategy

• Brand Strategy Community by Brand Master Academy
• Brand Strategy Foundations by CORE
• Certified Brand Consultant by The Future Academy (must complete course)
• JUST Creative Facebook by Jacob Cass
• JUST Creative Inner Triangle (Paid)
• Brand Building Community by FreshSparks
• Sweathead – Strategy with Friends
• The Futur 
• The Futur Pro Group (Paid)
• The Future Academy by Tobias Dahlberg

Best Brand Strategy Blogs

If you’re looking for to learn brand strategy for free, one of the best ways is by reading some of the top industry blogs.

Here’s our list of top blogs that go into the subject of brand strategy, along with branding as a whole.

10 Best Blogs to Learn Brand Strategy Online

• Brand Master Academy by Stephen Houraghan
• Let’s Talk Branding Blog by Stef Hamerlinck
• How Brands Are Built by Rob Meyerson
• BrandNew by UnderConsideration
• The Futur by Chris Do & Team
• Marks And Maker Journal by Melinda Livsey
• Brand Strategy Archives by ColumnFiveMedia

Brand Strategy Frameworks & Templates

If you’re wanting to learn how to develop brand strategy and become more strategic with your work, check out these resources so you can build your brand the strategic way.

The process of brand strategy can change from person to person, but here are some of the best brand strategy frameworks, models, PDFs, templates & examples that we’ve come across.

• CORE by TheFutur
• Brand Strategy Made Simple Workbook
• Brand Strategy Template Checklist
• The 5 Whys by Sakichi Toyoda
• The 4 C’s Framework
• Value Propostiion by Geoff More
• SWOT Analysis by Albert Humphrey
• The Brand Spectrum – a look at a brand strategy project.
• The Brand Key – Important aspects of a brand within a visual shape.
• Swot Analyis – SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework.
• Brand, Branding Explained – Learn the fundamentals of brand & their differences
• The Strategic Pyramid – Brand Purpose, Mission, Vision & Values
• Free Brand Strategy Workbook – A ten step workbook that will help you build an extraordinary brand.
• Strat It Up by Julia Braga – Julia’s framework + worksheets for developing resilient brands.

Brand Strategy Insight Gathering Resources

To gather insights into consumers and the market place it is best you do your research. Here are some great strategy insight gathering tools.

• WGSN: the leading website in trend reports in different industries. The full reports are paid.
• LSN Global Macro trends & micro trends.
• JWT Intelligence: Tons of free content in many different industries such as tech, lifestyle, food & drink
• CB Insights: Data driven research, great visualisations on many different industries.
• Reddit has many sub groups to explore to gather insights.

More Brand Strategy Resources

• A list of brand strategy resources compiled by Stef Hamerlinck
• Ilya from WeAreStudeo has put together a Brand Strategy guide 

Have a brand strategy resource recommendation? Let us know.

Thanks to Stefan of Let’s Talk Branding for a few of the resources above.