Asking how much branding costs is the wrong question. A better question would be: What should we be investing in our brand? The follow-up question to that is: What return do we want on our investment? Because branding has a return, such as more clients, more donations, more members, more funding, it is an investment, not a cost like electricity or rent.
Re-framing the question is a more accurate way to determine your budget. Carefully consider what services you need. Think about what skills you have in-house and which are better provided by a specialist. Just as your organization hires consultants for IT and legal issues, it should consider hiring experts in creative, effective branding and the work that goes into developing a brand. Workshops facilitated by a consultant cost more but they can be more productive than trying to get staff to open up when managers are present. A skilled facilitator can keep the group focused while still encouraging creativity. Using an experienced researcher to field test names, logos or websites is another cost but can give you a more objective idea of what resonates with your audience and lead to a much more effective choice.
Costs can escalate if upfront groundwork isn’t done well. Defining your organization’s message and distinguishing characteristics, its audience, and what you want the brand to accomplish are critical first steps that lay a solid foundation for creating the brand. Doubling back to start over because branding needs were not well defined can be costly.
Base your budget on what is realistic for your particular organization. You can approach the task in several ways:
1. As a percentage of your budget
Think about how much you should invest in your brand as a percent of your overall organization budget. This keeps it in line with operating expenses. The percent may be determined by the life-stage of your organization and your overall need. For example, start-up and early-stage organizations will need to spend a higher percentage of their budget on branding and marketing in order to build awareness and a strong base of support. More mature organizations with an established brand may only have to freshen their image, a less costly undertaking.
New organizations might be aggressive by allocating 10% to 20% of their budgets to establishing their brand, developing their website, and creating fundraising materials. For organizations with larger budgets, a smaller percentage of that budget may provide sufficient money to build or refresh their brand.
2. Based on your goals
The more challenging your marketing goals, the more you might allocate to solving them. If your organization has suffered a major public relations blow or is launching a new initiative, your investment in branding may need to be larger in order to achieve that goal. If your goal is to reach a whole new demographic of donors, it may be worth the extra investment to conduct deeper research to insure that you understand your target audience and that your branding is on the mark.
On the other hand, a minor name change — from “coalition” to “association,” for example — may require a much smaller branding budget.
3. Based on the results you expect
Perhaps your organization’s annual fundraising revenue is $4 million, and you want to increase that amount by 20% or $800,000. An investment of 10% of that anticipated increase is $80,000. Is a $720,000 increase in revenue worth an $80,000 investment? Or, to look at it another way, is it worth risking that potential $800,000 increase in revenue by taking the cheapest, but not necessarily the best, branding option?
4. What comparable nonprofits have paid
Tap your network to find out what other organizations have paid for comparable services. Be sure that the services were comparable, that is, was the branding just a refresher or a major makeover? Did it include a logo redesign, a new name, or just a reassessment of target audiences? Understand that each branding situation is different but you can get a sense of what’s involved and what the costs are from those who have made the journey before you. Ask other organizations that have undergone a branding process what their experiences were; whether they are happy with the process, results, and investment they made; or if there are lessons to learn from their experiences.
5. What branding agencies charge
A branding agency that specializes in nonprofit branding can help you to determine what might be an appropriate investment for your firm. Fees are based on the services provided and time required to perform those services. Be sure the agency understands the nonprofit sector; it is quite different from the for-profit sector.
If you do not hire a professional branding agency, you become the general contractor for the project, tasked with coordinating all the contributors to the branding process. It is similar to being your own general contractor on a house remodel and working with an architect, the electrician, the carpenters, and so on. Project management is a big job. It may fall on the shoulders of your Development Director, who will then have less time for the day-to-day tasks of fundraising. That is a real cost to you. For organizations that can afford it, hiring a professional is often the best and least expensive option.
You may want to hire outside help for only part of the branding process. You could choose to have a consultant assess your current brand and its effectiveness in various contact points with your audiences, such as your website and printed materials. Or you might decide to have branding workshops facilitated by a consultant. Or you may choose to do the upfront research and evaluation yourself and then bring in the creative pros, the ones who can come up with names and logos that are memorable and accurately reflect your organization’s mission.
With an outside agency, costs should be itemized, the outputs clearly defined and the timeline for completion specified. Knowing how much money is needed and when it will be needed can be a great advantage when setting your budget. If you do such a complex process in-house, you may come up against unanticipated costs or delays.
Factors That Affect the Cost of Branding
One size does not fit all in creating a brand. Testing a new brand could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 or more. The cost is determined by such variables as:
- size of the organization and the number of people involved in the process.
- the size and variety of audiences that your organization needs to consider, which affects the number and type of interviews and surveys.
- complexity of issues: multiple objectives makes both assessment of your brand and creation of a new one more costly.
- number of programs, chapters or affiliates for whom logos must be developed.
