Brand building is important for organizations of all sizes, not just publicly traded, global enterprise-wide corporations. A brand is the identity of an organization, and is the first point of entry with a consumer or client. The name, voice, logo, images, visual style, tagline, personality, reputation, and colors are all part of an organization’s branding. Creating and managing a brand is about your team creating the perception and reputation of your organization – instead of allowing clients, customers, and prospects to define who and what you stand for.
Every brand creation starts with a strategy. The startup phase of strategy development includes identifying the brand voice, logo, images, visual style, tagline, colors, and personality.
To establish a brand’s strategy, the cost will likely range between $4,000 to $8,000 USD for the initial brand strategy development. Additional costs will be spent for changes and updates over time.
After the strategy is established, investing in your brand creation – including your brand name, brand voice, brand values, brand tone, brand mission, fonts, color palette, logo, and tagline – will set up your organization for success with all the visual elements your brand needs to thrive in a competitive marketplace. The cost will likely range between $3,000 to $12,000 USD for the brand creation process.
The last piece to the brand puzzle is your Brand Kit, a set of visual materials to share and promote your brand with the world, including stationery templates, email footers, social media banners, business cards, virtual backgrounds, branded swag, and more. A Brand Kit often includes a Brand Style Guide, which is a document that identifies common guidelines, do’s and don’ts for brand usage when creating marketing materials. For example, guidelines on using or altering the brand logo into different color combinations. The cost will likely range between $3,000 to $10,000 USD for a Brand Kit development.
Marketing management includes marketing strategy development and implementation, target audience identification, target audience segmentation (customer segmentation), value proposition development and management, marketing messaging development and management, website management, search engine optimization, social media management, email campaign management, inbound and lead generation management, product marketing (product, price, packaging, promotion) , value proposition management, multi-channel marketing campaigns, competitor analysis, and content marketing (infographics, blogs, eBooks, webinars, podcasts, videos, etc.) development and management.
Marketing management spend depends on the volume of marketing channels and activities that an organization develops and implements. A reasonable range for monthly marketing management for a small business or non-profit is between $2,500 and $10,000 USD per month.
Traditional advertising includes ads with print (newspaper, magazine), television, radio, billboards, and direct mail. Digital advertising includes search engine ads, display ads, social media, email marketing, influencer, and brand partnerships.
The advertising spend includes the cost of creating and managing advertising campaigns. If you want to maintain current revenue amounts, then 5% to 10% of sales allocated toward advertising may suffice. If you want fast-paced growth, then increasing the number to 20% or more depending on the industry and type of business you operate would be an ideal budget. For many small businesses and non-profits, between $1,000 to $5,000 USD per month is a reasonable minimum advertising spend.
Marketing is a business investment. A business or non-profit can have the best product, service, or mission – but can’t make an impact if no one knows that the offerings are available, or understands how they benefit and gain from the product, service, or mission.
Organizational executives and marketing leaders must evaluate the cost of customer acquisition and understand the large part that branding and marketing plays in lowering the high cost of attracting and acquiring new customers.
Marketing is an investment that has a high return.
Starving your business of crucial branding and marketing strategy and campaigns is never a smart decision.
A branding and marketing strategic plan can make or break an organization’s success. The plan’s implementation can catapult an organization to a new level of success and revenue growth – positioning the organization as a better choice over competitors, or the lack of it can lead to a plateau or decline in growth.