It is true that some businesses spend only a few thousand dollars on branding, whilst others spend tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. With such a large range, how do you know how much you should be spending?
Before addressing how much to invest, it’s more important to consider when you should invest in your branding. The answer is the earlier the better, for two reasons. Firstly, if you leave your branding to the very last minute, there is often no time and very little money (if any) to create a brand that will communicate why you started up your business, its values and personality.
Conveying these three basics of your business through effective branding is extremely important because it builds up the foundation for awareness and recognition around your brand, which is expensive and difficult to change later down the track.
Secondly, if you are a retailer that needs a fit out, it’s critical that a branding specialist is brought in at the design phase to give them the perfect opportunity to find spaces within your environment to place branding and find unique and potentially cost-effective ways to amplify your voice such as a mural, a bespoke sample station or even unique waiting area. Remember branding includes paint colours, menus, lighting and even bathroom signage and implementing these at the time of the fit out will save you thousands than if you had waited until after it was complete.
How much should I spend?
As a rule of thumb, branding sits under marketing budget and it’s recommended that your marketing budget should be 5-10% of your total yearly turnover. If you’re in the startup phase, estimate what your first year turnover is and work back from there.
As a rough guide, expect your branding to cost around $10,000 at a minimum, the higher the budget means the more choice you have in terms of scope and scale of your rollout.
How should I spend my budget?
The budget for your brand should be broken down into the initial cost of developing the brand (this is conceptualising the brand and creating the imagery) and then the cost of the rollout of the brand (which can be expensive if your business requires an extensive roll out such as stickers for cars, large or intricate signage or packaging and point of sale per retail outlet.)
Creating a list of priorities for your rollout will help you determine how much you can invest and can be broken into three categories: branded items that are business critical, branded items that give the maximum exposure for minimum dollar value and, finally, the ‘nice to have’ things.
There is value in creating a well-thought-out brand early on for your business and spending an affordable amount you’re comfortable with in rolling it out. Changing branding a few years into trading is a nightmare and having to re-establish and shift customer awareness can cost you enormously.
About Brands for Brands
Brands for Brands help businesses create their branding and work with to find a solution that fits time frames budgets, and client expectations. Visit brandforbrands.com
