Rebranding services, compared on published evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How to buy a rebrand without buying a logo

1. Write down what the rebrand has to fix. A merger, a category change, a name nobody can spell and a founder who is bored are four different briefs with four different budgets. Put the problem in one sentence and make every proposal answer it, because an agency cannot price a feeling.
2. Separate identity from implementation. Naming, identity design and messaging are one line of work; the website rebuild, signage, packaging, templates and search migration are another and are usually the larger cost. Ask for them priced separately so you can see which half you are actually buying.
3. Check the agency's own published evidence. Named clients, dated case detail, a real address, named team members and printed prices where the agency prints them. Everything listed in this index was taken from an agency's own published pages, and a shortlist should meet the same standard before a call.
4. Plan the search consequences before you set a launch date. A rebrand that changes domains or URL structures is a site migration wearing a new logo. Agree who owns redirect mapping, canonical updates and post-launch monitoring in the contract, not in the week of go-live.
5. Agree what happens after launch. Brand guidelines, template libraries, asset handover and a named support window decide whether the new identity survives contact with your own team. Ask what is handed over, in what file formats, and who owns the working files.

What rebranding services usually include

The phrase covers a range wide enough to hide a factor of ten in price. At the light end it is a visual refresh: logo, palette, typography and a set of templates applied to what already exists. In the middle sits repositioning, where the research, the messaging framework and the identity are rebuilt together and the name may survive. At the heavy end sits a full rebrand with a new name, trademark clearance, a new domain, a rebuilt site and a coordinated launch across every channel and physical touchpoint the business owns.

Buyers get burned at the seams between those tiers. A logo delivered without templates becomes an internal argument about file formats; a new name delivered without domain and search planning becomes a traffic loss that shows up a month after everyone celebrated. When you compare proposals, line up the deliverables rather than the totals, and ask each agency to mark which items it is quoting and which it assumes you will handle.

The migration risk nobody quotes for

If the rebrand moves the site to a new domain or reorganises its URLs, the search consequences are mechanical and well documented. Old URLs need permanent redirects to their closest equivalents rather than a blanket redirect to the homepage; internal links, canonical tags and sitemaps need updating to the new addresses; and any staging-era blocks in robots.txt or noindex tags need removing before launch. Both the old and new properties should be verified in Search Console so the transfer can be watched rather than assumed.

The recovery period is real and it is not instant, so a launch scheduled the week before your busiest trading period is a self-inflicted wound. Ask a prospective agency to describe its migration checklist and who executes it. If the answer is that the developer will handle it, find out whether the developer has been quoted for it.

Pricing a rebrand against published evidence

Most agencies do not print rebrand prices, because scope varies so widely that a single number would mislead. The minority that publish anything at all set the only public reference points a buyer has, and this index collects them from the agencies' own pages with the source and the date we checked. Use those published figures the way you would use a comparable sale: not as a quote, but as the question you put to every finalist about where their number sits relative to what the market is willing to print.

Two structures dominate. A fixed-scope project fee suits identity work with a defined deliverable list. A phased engagement, priced stage by stage with a go or no-go decision between stages, suits repositioning where the research may change the brief. Be wary of an open-ended retainer for creative work with no defined output; it converts your budget into the agency's capacity planning.

Judging the work before you commission it

Portfolio reels are edited. Published case detail is checkable. Ask for engagements where the agency can name the client, describe the problem in the client's words, and show what shipped rather than what was pitched. Ask what the client had to do internally to make the rebrand land, because an agency that cannot answer that has probably never watched one land.

Then apply the same verification test this index applies to every listing: does the agency publish an address, a named team, dated work and a price? None of those prove the creative will be good. All of them prove the business is real and willing to be held to what it printed, which is the floor a shortlist should start from.

Questions people actually ask

How much do rebranding services cost?

Scope drives the number more than agency size does: a visual refresh, a repositioning and a full name change are three different purchases. Most agencies do not publish rebrand pricing; the ones that do set the only public reference points, and this index records them from their own pages so you can ask every finalist to position a quote against them.

Will a rebrand hurt my search traffic?

It can, if the domain or URL structure changes and the migration is not planned. Permanent redirects from every old URL to its closest new equivalent, updated internal links, canonicals and sitemaps, and monitoring in Search Console are the mechanics that protect it. Recovery is gradual rather than immediate, so pick a launch window that is not your peak season.

Should the same agency do the brand and the website?

One team removes the handover seam and owns the launch end to end, but only if it can show real depth in both design and build. Two suppliers can work well when someone on your side owns the interface between them. Either way, make redirect mapping and post-launch monitoring an explicitly named responsibility in one contract.

How long does a rebrand take?

Identity-only work is usually measured in weeks; a full rebrand with naming, trademark clearance, a rebuilt site and physical assets is usually measured in quarters. Ask for a phased timeline with named decision points, and treat any proposal without a research phase for a name change as underscoped.

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