Pepsi paid $1.2 billion for their re-brand in 2008 (yes, with a “B”).

Here’s why.

The answer begins with another question: How do you price brand work?

Obviously the more talented a designer is, the more experience and investment they’ve put into their craft. So, they receive that investment back through a higher rate- we know this. The difference in quality is obvious between a $500 logo and a $50 one from a designer on Fiverr using stock images. But a design can only get so good, right? So why is it that BP paid a staggering $211 million for their rebrand, and Pepsi paid $1.2 billion for theirs? Is the design really that good? Like, $1.2 billion, with a “B”, good? I mean you can see the new $1,000,000 Pepsi logo- I’m sure any designer could recreate it. So what gives?

When you look at the best branding in the world, and “ask what makes it so great?” You’ll soon realize it has nothing to do with the design itself, and everything to do with what it represents.

Apple, for instance, is perhaps the most omnipresent example for the power of branding. It’s impossible to measure how important their logo is to them. I mean think: do most consumers purchase Apple products because their OS is that special compared to Windows? Are iPhones the only smartphones that can send text messages and browse on Instagram? Not by a long shot. 

The reason is because Apple has positioned themselves as the creators of beautiful machines which empower forward-thinking artists. Notice the focus on making the consumer feel special? This image is the reason why iPhones are so predominant in our society, practically monopolizing the smartphone market. Here you start to realize the power of branding.

In this example, the value of Apple’s branding is insurmountable- it’s key to their success as a whole. But a small mom & pop shop, on the other hand, probably won’t opt to spend millions on theirs. This is because a brand can only be worth the value of what it provides to the company. The more valuable the company, and the more your income depends on image… The more valuable the brand is. So, that mom & pop shop whose logo isn’t going to bring in a lot of extra revenue, should probably opt for that $50 logo that’s just enough to simply have one.

You’ll soon start to realize that when designing a brand, you ought to focus less on product and specifics, and shift your focus to the customer. 

Take, for instance, a market of local Italian restaurants. Let’s assume they all provide the same kind of food, all with great quality. Except one of them positions themselves as a “luxury” experience. They have extravagant decor, a certain style logo, even down to a specific brightness in lighting, things which are highly valued by luxury customers. Being able to target specific customers not only makes them choose that restaurant, but builds lasting relationships with them based off of their shared values. This strong connection will yield much more revenue for them. Had they stuck with the same style every other local restaurant, they would be, just another local restaurant. After all, remember: those highly-targeted 20% of your customers typically are the ones who bring in 80% of your revenue.

So, the worth of your branding is determined solely off of how much extra revenue it will even bring you.

For those other restaurants who’ve invested just enough to look professional, it won’t be much. But for the latter, their image alone ensured they brought in much more business.

This is why we price our branding work based off of how valuable your brand actually is to your company. It wouldn’t be very fair to charge a small mom & pop shop the same as an eight-figure E-Commerce store whose marketing relies on their ability to stand out online. And it wouldn’t be very fair to the designer to charge $1000 for a logo like Apple’s which is worth much more value. Supposedly, Nike got their perfect logo right off the bat. But whether the designer came up with it in 30 seconds or in 30 weeks, is irrelevant to its value. The Nike logo is plastered all over T-Shirts and shoes around the world, and whenever you see it, you know exactly what it means.

When a client plans on entering asking for a quote, understand the designer can’t give an exact answer initially. And if they do, run. Because we don’t know enough yet: we could only guess its value. It’s only after talking in detail about the project, that we can quote a fitting rate.

So, how important is your brand? Is your image one of the main reasons your customers choose you, or does your company not rely too heavily on it? We’d love to hear about it! And if it is important to you, then, well... You know where to find us.