How Much Does a Rebrand Cost?

A refresh — updated visuals, tightened messaging, same underlying position — costs less because the strategic work is smaller. A rebrand — a genuine change in what the company stands for or who it serves — costs more because it starts over at the positioning layer, then rebuilds everything downstream of it.

Many companies pay rebrand prices for what should have been a refresh, or the reverse: they refresh the visuals and wonder why nothing changed, because the underlying position never moved. See Rebrand vs Refresh for how to tell which one you actually need.

• Scope of the position change. New name and category vs. sharper articulation of the existing one — the former touches legal, domains, and every existing asset; the latter doesn't.
• What gets rebuilt. Messaging alone is cheaper than messaging plus identity plus a full website rebuild.
• Legacy asset volume. A company with ten years of collateral, a large sales deck library, and enterprise contracts referencing the old name has more surface area to update than a two-year-old startup.
• Timeline pressure. Compressed timelines cost more — they require dedicated attention rather than work fit around other engagements.

• Founder-led / growth-stage business: $8,000–$20,000+. Covers positioning, messaging, identity refinement, and a website rebuild — QV's Brand & Website Build engagement sits in this range.
• Mid-market company (multiple product lines or locations): $30,000–$100,000, depending on how many touchpoints need updating.
• Enterprise (multi-market, franchise, or public company): $150,000–$1M+. Legal trademark clearance, multi-market rollout, and internal change management dominate the cost, not the creative work itself.

The strategy and design fee is usually the smaller number. The larger, less-visible cost is everything a rebrand triggers: new signage, updated sales collateral, domain and email migration, internal retraining, existing customer communication. Budget for the downstream rollout, not just the engagement fee — a rebrand that's underfunded past the design phase looks unfinished no matter how strong the strategy was.