The word “brand” is tossed around a lot in the workplace, but what is a brand? Is it a business’ logo or their color palette? Is it their name and tagline?

The answer is yes, and so much more. Every single time your company interacts with a customer, a follower, or any external audience, they’re experiencing your brand. Basically, your brand is your audience’s perception of your company. Their perception could be a feeling they get when they experience your services or product, or it could be how easily they recognize your branding because they know your products come in a blue striped box.

A brand is simply how your audiences view your company. And your logo, color palette, brand voice, mission statement, emails, website, and anything else your audience might experience help them see your company the way you want them to.

In the world of branding, every aspect matters.

If you offer customer service, how your customer service representatives engage with customers will either reinforce or weaken your brand. If you have a website or social media channels, these also represent your brand.

Why Do I Need a Brand?

Great branding helps you better connect with your ideal customers and clients. A great brand will help potential clients say, “This is where I belong. They understand me.” And a great brand will funnel those potential customers from the interest phase to the conversion phase, where they’re purchasing your product or services, to the brand loyalty phase, where they become repeat buyers and shout their love of your company from the rooftops.

Without brand identity, your customers won’t know whether you’re the right company for them. Think of a brand that you love. For example, a company folks will continue to buy from over and over again is Apple. Apple has a very clear brand identity; they’re usable, sophisticated, and customer-centric. People who love Apple products really love Apple products.

Apple’s brand has attracted the attention of its target clientele. Then, through consistent branding, Apple has been able to convert these potential customers into purchasers over and over again.

What Goes Into Building a Brand Identity?

There are a lot of different elements that make up a brand, which will affect the overall cost of your brand identity. Your company’s brand identity should encompass everything from the overall aesthetic to the way your company uses language and speaks to customers on different platforms.

Brand Name

A brand name is extremely important but doesn’t have to be the first thing you create. Your brand’s style and unique value proposition may be helpful to think about before coming up with a brand name.

For example, you don’t want a brand name of “EasyFinance” if you’re a financial educator and your target clientele is wealthy c-suite individuals. But if you’re a financial educator for recent graduates, that name might work! Brand naming services typically cost from $1,500 to $20,000 with a naming agency.

Visual Identity

Your brand’s visual identity is extremely important. It includes your color scheme, fonts, logo, imagery, shapes & patterns, icons, and any other visual assets. Your brand’s visual identity should be collated into a brand guidelines document, which defines how different brand elements should be used. Brand visual identity design will typically cost $4,000 to $50,000+ with an agency.

Voice

How your brand communicates to your target audience on all its different channels is one of the key ways to share your brand’s personality. Are you funny and rugged? Clear and minimalistic? Conversational, yet professional? All of these can impact the cost of your brand identity. Getting
an agency to define your brand voice can cost from $2,000 to $6,000+.

Core Brand Messaging

Core brand messaging can include things like a tagline, a mission and vision statement, a values statement, a unique value proposition, a brand point of view, and a multitude of other things. These brand elements unite your brand’s messaging and clearly share your unique voice and purpose with your customers.

For example, Nike’s tagline “Just do it” invokes a clear and visceral feeling in those that hear it. It also aligns with its mission statement, “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Not all of these brand elements will be visible to your customers, but they will help you and your team stay on track when creating new content. Nike doesn’t share their brand point of view on its website, but it infiltrates every piece of content they produce. To hire an agency to define your brand messaging will cost from $2,000 to $15,000+.

How Much Does a Brand Identity Cost?

There are a few different ways to begin designing your brand identity. You could develop your own brand, outsource your brand design to freelancers, or hire an agency to help you create your brand.

DIY Brand Identity Costs

This will be the cheapest option by far, but it will take you the most time of any other options and likely won’t look/be great.

To create your DIY brand, you will need to purchase some software. If you understand design, the Adobe Creative Suite may be a good option, but if not, Canva Pro might serve you better. Adobe is approximately $55 per month for all creative cloud apps. If you just want one app, like Illustrator, the cost is approximately $25 per month. Canva Pro is about $14 per month. These tools will be helpful when creating your logo, color palette, and any other parts of your visual identity.

When creating your own brand, you will have to spend a lot of time building every brand element from scratch.

Time must be spent:

1. Doing market research to find your target audience and identify your competition
2. Creating a brand personality
3. Choosing a business name and writing your core brand elements
4. Designing your logo and selecting your fonts and brand colors
5. Cultivating your voice and testing messaging

Overall, a DIY brand identity will cost approximately $50-$100.

How Much Does a Brand Identity Cost When Using Freelancers?

You can hire people or multiple people with specific skill sets when utilizing freelancers. Costs will vary widely due to many different variables, including the level of experience of the freelancer and the needs of your company. Be aware that freelancers’ quality of work will vary hugely, and you’ll likely have to closely manage what they’re doing.

For example, if you have a great copywriter on your staff, they may be able to handle the written aspects of your brand. So, you would be looking for someone to handle the strategy and design elements of your brand identity. Outsourcing pieces of the brand identity while keeping some in-house will help save costs. Then, depending on your budget, you can find an up-and-coming freelancer or an established expert.

Collaborating with freelancers on a brand will cost anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000, depending on their experience and your requirements.

How Much Does a Brand Identity Cost When Hiring an Agency?

Working with an agency will always be the best solution. Branding agencies have experts that work on every element of your brand identity. These experts will work together to ensure your brand is cohesive and strategic. A brand identity created by an agency will, in the long run, generate more interest and sales for your company than any of the other options.

They interview industry leaders like Stripe’s Chief Revenue Officer and have discussions about allyship and businesses’ role in advocating for their community. Inside Intercom is the best podcast for marketers looking for a wide variety of topics.

There is a lot of variation in branding costs for an agency, so make sure to do your research before taking the plunge. It would be wise to have at least $7,500 to spend on creating your brand with an agency.

Creating a brand identity is possible regardless of where you’re at with your business or your budget. And remember, a brand is supposed to update and change slightly as your business grows. So, if you don’t have the budget to hire an agency right now, that doesn’t mean you won’t in the future.

If you’re looking for an agency’s support with branding, we’re an award-winning UK & US-based creative agency. Get in touch with our team today.