Blog · Branding costs
How the budget changes between a refresh and a rebrand
A brand refresh keeps your name and positioning and redraws the visible parts, so the budget covers a handful of deliverables. A rebrand reopens the name, the strategy and every place the brand appears, and the budget grows with each of those. The gap sits in about six lines of the quote.
What is the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand?
A refresh keeps the name and the positioning and changes how they look. A rebrand changes at least one of the two: the name, or what the business says it is for.
Most small businesses use the words interchangeably, and so do many quotes. That is where budgets go wrong. A client who asks for "a rebrand" and means a new logo receives a quote built for a strategy project. A client who asks for "a refresh" and needs a new name receives a quote that leaves the hardest work out, and finds out in month two.
The test is short. If a customer who knew you five years ago would still recognise who you are, you are refreshing. If they would not, or if you want them not to, you are rebranding.
Does a refresh always cost less than a rebrand?
Usually, yes, because fewer lines of the quote are rebuilt. The saving comes from specific lines that a refresh skips or shrinks, and the table below shows where they sit. We give no price ranges here: the right number depends on your brief, and an article cannot see it.
| Line of the quote | In a refresh | In a rebrand |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and audit | Short: what works, what has aged | Full: customers, competitors, the business itself |
| Strategy and positioning | Confirmed or lightly adjusted | Rewritten or newly written |
| Name | Unchanged | Chosen, checked, sometimes protected |
| Logo and visual system | Redrawn from the existing mark | Designed from nothing |
| Guidelines | Updated | Written from scratch |
| Roll-out across your materials | Replacement of files | Every place the old name or mark appears |
Our earlier piece on what branding costs, line by line describes each of these deliverables. This article only compares the two routes.
Which costs only appear in a rebrand?
Three: the name work, the legal follow-through on the name, and the roll-out of a new name everywhere the old one lives. A refresh avoids all three.
Name work is a project in itself. Candidates are shortlisted, then checked against existing businesses, domains and social handles before anyone falls in love with one. That checking costs time even when it ends with nothing usable.
Legal follow-through starts with the trade mark. GOV.UK states that registering a trade mark costs at least £205, and usually more depending on how many types of goods or services you want to protect. A new name or a new logo means a new application if you want the same protection. A refresh that leaves the mark recognisably the same may not need one, which is a question to put to an adviser before the drawing starts, not after.
The roll-out is the cost clients forget. If you trade as a limited company, GOV.UK says that business letters, order forms and websites must show the registered number, the registered office address and the full company name. A change of trading name does not remove those lines, so the website, invoices and email signatures each need checking, one by one.
What does a refresh still cost for?
The audit, the redrawn mark, the type and colour system, the updated guidelines, and the handover of the files. A refresh costs less, and the lines it keeps are the ones that decide whether the result lasts.
The audit matters most. It decides which parts of the existing brand carry recognition and should survive, and which have only aged. A studio that skips it redraws everything out of habit and ends up quoting a rebrand under another name.
Ownership belongs in the refresh too. GOV.UK explains that the person who creates a work is its first owner, unless it was made in the course of employment. A redrawn logo is a new work, so the contract has to say in writing that the rights pass to you. We cover that in our note on who owns the logo, files and domain when a project ends.
How do you decide between the two?
Answer four questions about the business, in order. The first "no" usually points to a rebrand.
- Does the name still fit what you sell and where you want to sell it?
- Is the positioning, the sentence that says who you serve and why, still true?
- Do your customers already recognise the mark, even if it looks tired?
- Could a stranger tell you apart from your three closest competitors at a glance?
If the answer to the first three is yes and the fourth is no, you have a design problem, and a refresh addresses it. If the first or second is no, a new logo will sit on top of an old problem. Spend the money on the strategy line first.
A common trap sits between the two: the business that has changed what it sells and keeps its old identity, or the one that wants a new identity because the website is slow. The second case is a website project, and it appears in our piece on what a small business website really costs.
How should you ask for the quote?
Ask for it line by line, and state in the brief which route you think you are on. The Design Business Association's guide to buying design recommends a written design brief, so that quotes answer the same question and can be compared.
A refresh brief names what stays, in a sentence each: the name, the colours people recognise, the shape of the mark. A rebrand brief names what is up for discussion. When two quotes arrive at very different totals, put them side by side against the table above. The gap almost always sits in the strategy, name and roll-out lines, and that tells you which quote assumed which route. We explain why totals vary so much in our note on branding quotes.
If you would like a studio to look at your brief with you, our services page sets out what we do, and the studio page introduces the two people who would do it.
Common questions
What is the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand?
A refresh keeps the name and positioning and updates how they look. A rebrand changes the name, the positioning, or both.
Is a brand refresh cheaper than a rebrand?
Usually, because fewer lines of the quote are rebuilt: the name work, the strategy and the roll-out are smaller or absent. The saving varies with the brief, and no honest figure can be given without one.
Do I need a new trade mark after a rebrand?
A new name or logo means a new application if you want the same protection. GOV.UK says registering a trade mark costs at least £205 and usually more. Ask an adviser before the design starts.
What does a limited company have to show on its website?
GOV.UK says it must show the registered number, the registered office address, where it is registered, and its full name including Limited or Ltd.
Who owns the new logo after a refresh?
Its creator, until a written assignment says otherwise. GOV.UK explains that the person who creates a work is its first owner, so the contract must transfer the rights to you.
Louis Denis, Orbe Studio
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