When a client asks us what a rebrand costs, they usually mean the logo. That’s fair. The logo is the part you can see on the quote. But in most of the rebrands we’ve worked on, the design fee ends up being the smaller number by a long way.
This isn’t a reason to avoid a rebrand. Sometimes you really do need one. It’s a reason to budget for the whole thing before you start, so you don’t end up with a shiny new logo on the website and the old one still painted on the van eighteen months later.
The design work itself
This is the part people expect. A logo, a colour palette, a couple of typefaces, and a short guide that explains how to use them. For a small business that’s often enough. For a bigger organisation you’ll also want templates: letterheads, email signatures, presentation slides, social media layouts.
The templates are where a lot of the value sits, honestly. A logo on its own doesn’t stop your sales team from making their own flyers in Word with whatever font they like. Good templates do.
Everything with the old logo on it
Go for a walk around your office, your shop or your branch and count. We did this once with a client and gave up somewhere past sixty items. Some of the usual suspects:
- Outdoor signage and the sign above reception
- Vehicle branding
- Staff uniforms and name tags
- Business cards, letterheads, envelopes, receipt books
- Branded packaging and labels
- Roller banners and event stands
- Your website, social profiles, and the email signature every staff member has set up slightly differently
Signage is usually the big one. A new illuminated sign can cost more than the entire design project, and if you’re in a mall or a commercial building there may be landlord approvals to deal with too. Vehicle wraps aren’t cheap either.
The stock you'll throw away
Nobody likes this bit. If you printed 5,000 brochures in March and you rebrand in June, a lot of those are going in the bin, or you keep using them and look inconsistent for a while. Neither is great.
One practical fix: before you commit to a launch date, ask whoever handles your printing what’s sitting in the store room. Time the switch for when stock is running low anyway. It sounds obvious, but we’ve seen companies reprint old letterheads two weeks before a rebrand because nobody told the person who orders them.
Time, which nobody budgets for
This is the cost that never shows up on an invoice. Someone in your team will spend weeks chasing the signage company, updating the website, briefing the printer, collecting old business cards and answering “which logo do I use?” on WhatsApp. In a small business that person is often the owner.
If you can, name one person who owns the rollout. Give them a list and a deadline. It makes a bigger difference than any design decision.
So should you rebrand?
Sometimes the honest answer is no. If your logo is a bit dated but people recognise it, a refresh might do the job: tidy up the type, fix the colours so they print properly, and leave the shape alone. That’s far cheaper and you keep the recognition you’ve built.
A full rebrand makes sense when the business has genuinely changed. New services, a merger, a move into a new market, or a name that’s causing you real problems. In those cases the cost is worth it, as long as you go in knowing what the full number looks like.
If you’re weighing it up, we’re happy to talk it through before you commit to anything. Have a look at our logo and identity work, or just get in touch.
Header photo by Taylor Prince on Unsplash.
