In the last episode, we broke down what a brand audit actually is and why skipping one is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make before a rebrand. We also spoke about branding versus advertising. Remember, advertising is a utility bill. Stop renting your attention and start owning it.
Today we tackled that big question. Actually we covered two big questions today. So settle in, this might be a slightly longer episode, I hope you don’t mind. So let’s start with the first big question. What does it actually cost to build a brand properly?
Well, how long is a piece of string? I know nobody wants that answer, but it’s the honest answer. It goes it depends entirely on what you’re actually asking for. Are we talking basic old school identity, a logo, two colors, typeface, some printed stationery? Or a fully scalable system, a brand book, color palette, full type scale custom website, social guidelines, the works? Are you sitting across from a small boutique studio or an agency with brass letters on the wall and an overhead to match? Your designer in a converted garage in Texas or a glass tower in California?
Cost scales with complexity. A few thousand gets a solid visual identity for a local business, where tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, buys a deep strategic positioning. Millions if you’re rolling out globally.
But here’s the better question, or two. Not what does it cost to do this, but what does it cost not to, and what does it cost when you get it wrong?
Let me tell you about a napkin. In 1965, Karl Lagerfeld sketched the Fendi double F monogram logo over lunch on a napkin. That million dollar scribble became one of the most recognizable luxury symbols on the planet. Sixty years later, it’s on every bag, every storefront, every runway. Its value is basically incalculable.
But here’s what people always miss about that story. The napkin didn’t build Fendi. It was a starting point. A great mark gives a brand somewhere to stand. What you build on top of that is everything. Fendi spent a lot of money, effort, and time to build an icon.
Now you don’t need to be an Italian fashion house to prove the principle. Innocent Smoothies launched in ’99 at a music festival. And they asked festivalgoers to vote on their future. Should the founders quit their day jobs? You voted by dropping an empty bottle into a bin marked either yes or no. Yes won, and a brand was born. That unique and slightly ridiculous piece of brand building eventually led to Coca-Cola snapping them up for roughly $750 million.
Now, the other side of this, because cost isn’t just what you spend building a brand, it’s what you lose when you get it wrong. And that can be very, very expensive.
Bud Light was America’s best-selling beer for two decades. In 2023, an appeal to spite triggered a backlash so fast it lost the number one spot almost overnight. $1.4 billion gone, along with 21 years of customer trust.Slow to learn, Jaguar stepped on the same rake just one year later. They abandoned their heritage, dropped the iconic leaping cat, and launched a campaign with zero cars in it. European sales cratered by 97.5%. And no, that’s not a typo.
Here’s a lesson from both, and it’s the one sentence from this whole episode that’s worth writing down. Brand equity accumulates in drops, it empties in buckets.
The bottom line, what does proper design cost? It’s a complicated answer that varies from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars. But cheap design and poor decisions costs a whole lot more.
Let’s take a quick break from the show. Everything on Brand New comes from somewhere. This podcast is an extension of a book I’ve spent the last year writing. It’s called The Business Owner’s Guide to Branding. 150 answers to the questions you’re actually asking. Written for business owners, it’s a book that finally translates what goes on inside a brand designer’s head so you know exactly what you’re paying for and why. Available soon on Amazon, in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle. Now back to the show.
Let me hit you with a bonus point. Today it’s a big one. If I sell my business, does the branding actually have value?
Let’s backtrack just a little to something I hear all the time. I can’t afford that. The truth is, if you’re serious about your business, you cannot afford the cost of amateur design. Professional branding is a high yield investment because it creates brand equity. The commercial premium your business earns through trust, recognition, and reputation. It’s the reason someone picks you over a near-identical competitor without fully knowing why.
Think of it like a reputational bank account. Every piece of solid design, every strong decision, every positive customer experience, every recommendation, that’s a deposit. Cheap design isn’t cheap. It’s a slow, invisible expense paid out in lost clients and missed opportunities. And when the day comes that you want to sell, which, let’s be honest, is most business owners’ actual end goal, a well-managed brand pays that investment back in multiples.
Buyers pay a premium for a brand that doesn’t need fixing. A great brand isn’t just worth more than the competition, it’s worth more than everything else in the building combined.In the late 90s, Burberry had become diluted, overexposed, borderline unfashionable. They rebuilt the whole thing, the visual identity, the product design, retail experience, brand control, all of it.
The result? Global luxury powerhouse today worth billions.
Or take the big one. ’97. Apple is weeks away from bankruptcy, a confusing mess. Steve Jobs comes back and doesn’t just fix the supply chain, he executes a full brand purge, streamlines everything, unifies the identity, and launches Think Different. That Apple stock you didn’t buy in ’99 is up more than 35,000% today. Design did that.So the real question was never whether you can afford professional design. It’s whether your business can survive anything less.
I’ll leave you with this one from Joel Spolsky, the guy who created Trello. Design adds value faster than it adds cost.In the next episode, we finally get to the meat and potatoes. Logo design. Yes? It’s time to talk about your logo.
That’s it for this episode of BRAND:NEW. Thank you for spending a few minutes with me. I don’t take your time for granted. If this helps you, share it with the business owner who needs it. And if you’ve got 10 seconds, please leave a rating. It would really mean the world to me.
brand building costs
Every business owner eventually asks me some version of the same question: How much should branding actually cost? It’s a fair question, and most people who ask it have been burned once already — either by a cheap logo that never earned its keep or a big invoice that didn’t seem to buy much.
Here’s the honest answer, and then a better question underneath it.
How much should branding actually cost? It’s a fair question; high-yield. People asking it have been built once already.
How Long Is A Piece Of String?
Nobody wants that answer, but it’s the truth. Cost depends entirely on what you’re actually asking for.
Are we talking basic, old-school identity — a logo, two colors, a typeface, some printed stationery? Or a fully scalable system — a brand book, color palette, full type scale, custom website, social guidelines, the—orks? Are you working with a small boutique studio or an agency with brass letters on the wall and an overhead to match? A designer in a converted garage in Texas, or a glass tower in California?
Cost scales with complexity. A few thousand gets you a solid visual identity for a local business. Tens of thousands — sometimes hundreds of thousands — buy deep strategic positioning. Millions, if you’re rolling out globally.
But the number on the invoice isn’t the real question. The better one is this: not what does it cost to do this, but what does it cost not to — and what does it cost when you get it wrong?
Cost scales with complexity. A few thousand get a solid visual identity for a local business, while tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, buy a deep strategic positioning. Millions if you’re rolling out globally.
The Napkin That Made Millions
In 1965, Karl Lagerfeld sketched the Fendi double-F monogram over lunch — on a napkin. That million-dollar scribble became one of the most recognizable luxury symbols on the planet. Sixty years later, it’s on every bag, every storefront, every runway. Its value is basically incalculable.
But here’s what people always miss about that story. The napkin didn’t build Fendi. It was a starting point. A great mark gives a brand somewhere to stand — what you build on top of it is everything. Fendi spent serious money, effort, and time turning that scribble into an icon.
You don’t need to be an Italian fashion house to prove the principle. Innocent Smoothies launched in 1999 at a music festival, where they asked festivalgoers to vote on their future — should the founders quit their day jobs? People voted by dropping an empty bottle into a bin marked either “Yes” or “No.” Yes won, and a brand was born. That unique, slightly ridiculous piece of brand building eventually led to Coca-Cola acquiring the company for roughly $750 million.
The napkin didn’t build Fendi. It was a starting point. A great mark gives a brand somewhere to stand. What you build on top of that is everything.
What It costs to get it wrong
Cost isn’t just what you pay —it’s what you lose when you get it wrong. And that can be very, very expensive.
Bud Light was America’s best-selling beer for two decades. In 2023, a single tone-deaf campaign triggered a backlash so fast the brand lost the number one spot almost overnight. $1.4 billion gone, along with 21 years of customer trust.
Jaguar made the same mistake a year later, on a smaller scale but with faster consequences. The brand abandoned its heritage, dropped the iconic leaping cat, and launched a rebrand campaign with zero cars in it. European sales cratered by 97.5%. That’s not a typo.
There’s one sentence from both stories worth writing down:
So what does proper design cost? It’s a complicated answer, ranging from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands. But cheap design and poor decisions cost a whole lot more
Brand equity accumulates in drops; it empties in buckets.
Does Branding Actually Have Value When You Sell Your Business?
I hear this a lot: “I can’t afford that.” The truth is, if you’re serious about your business, you can’t afford the cost of amateur design.
Professional branding is a high-yield investment because it builds brand equity — the commercial premium your business earns through trust, recognition, and reputation. It’s the reason someone picks you over a near-identical competitor without fully knowing why.
Think of it like a reputational bank account. Every piece of solid design, every strong decision, every positive customer experience, every recommendation — that’s a deposit. Cheap design isn’t cheap. It’s a slow, invisible expense paid out in lost clients and missed opportunities.
And when the day comes that you want to sell — which, let’s be honest, is most business owners’ actual end goal — a well-managed brand pays that investment back in multiples. Buyers pay a premium for a brand that doesn’t need fixing. A great brand isn’t just worth more than the competition, it’s worth more than everything else in the building combined.
A great brand isn’t just worth more than the competition; it’s worth more than everything else in the building combined.
Burberry, Apple, And The Return On Design
In the late 1990s, Burberry had become diluted, overexposed, borderline unfashionable. The company rebuilt the whole thing — visual identity, product design, retail experience, brand control, all of it. The result: a global luxury powerhouse worth billions today.
Or take the bigger example. In 1997, Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy — a confusing, sprawling mess of a product line. Steve Jobs returned and didn’t just fix the supply chain. He executed a full brand purge, streamlined everything, unified the identity, and launched Think Different. Apple stock is up more than 35,000% since 1999. Design did that.The real question was never whether you can afford professional design. It’s whether your business can survive anything less than that.
Joel Spolsky, the co-founder of Trello, put it simply: design adds value faster than it adds cost.
The real question was never whether you can afford professional design. It’s whether your business can survive anything less than that.
This article is a companion piece to my podcast, Episode 7 of BRAND:NEW — listen to the full conversation using the audio player above.
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