Budgeting for a rebrand
Ah… the age-old question: How much does it cost to rebrand?
The frustrating answer is that it depends.
According to Forbes, branding quotes can range “anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 and up, and sometimes this includes only the design. … A small agency that does both (visual and verbal branding) can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 and up.”
The cost of your rebrand will ultimately depend on a number of factors: the size of the job (is it one brand, or one parent brand with several smaller brands looped into it?), the scope of the rebrand (is it just the visuals being updated, or visuals and messaging?), the geographic market you’re in, and the amount of expertise on the team doing the work.
Because your brand is so important, we recommend budgeting for a rebrand to cost at least $5,000 for visuals alone, or $10,000 for both visuals and messaging. Anything less than that will likely be “quick and dirty”—which is not what you want for something that will be the very foundation of your organization’s reputation. Due to complexity and scale, a brand launch strategy—including communication and identifying marketing collateral—can start at $5,000.
Remember to budget for more than the creative and design alone, too. After coming up with the new brand, you’ll need to update everything on which your branding appears. This may include:
Business cards
Website
Social media
Uniforms/apparel
Letterhead/envelopes
Promotional materials
Company vehicle wraps
Signage
If you don’t have the budget to update everything all at once, you can choose to do a brand rollout in phases. Start with the items that are seen most frequently, then slowly update less prominent items over time as your budget allows. A good branding partner will work with you on planning out and budgeting for this process.
Good branding begins with good planning
Have you audited all your marketing collateral and promotional materials? Conduct a brand audit to identify where to begin and how to roll out your new brand.