How do you plan a rebranding for a B2B company?

In four phases and over a period of between four weeks and 6 months: diagnosis, positioning, brand system and implementation.

What determines whether it goes well is not the creative phase: it is how many decisions are made before anyone draws anything, and who makes them.

We have learned this in the only way that really teaches you: the hard way. Projects that become complicated almost never become complicated because of the design. They become complicated because there was no clear decision-maker, because the scope was agreed verbally, or because the company was halfway through a strategic change that nobody had finished deciding on.

So this guide explains the process, deliverables, timings and the real cost in Spain. And it starts with the part that is almost never discussed: when not to do it.

What is a rebranding, and what isn’t?

A rebranding is a change in the meaning or expression of a brand: what it promises, what space it occupies in the market, what its name is and how it expresses itself visually and verbally.

It is not a logo redesign. A new logo on top of the same positioning is a facelift, which involves a smaller budget and generates less change.

If we think about the different types of projects involved in a brand evolution, we can broadly distinguish three levels, with three clearly differentiated price ranges:

When does a rebranding make sense?

The five signs that do justify it:

1. The company has changed and the brand hasn’t. You sell something different, to a different customer, at a different scale. You have grown a lot and quickly. You started as a local business and want to expand into other markets. You are innovative and your brand is 20 years old… Having a brand that represents an earlier version of the company is the most common reason for doing a rebranding in B2B.
2. Merger, acquisition or spin-off. There are two brands where there should be one, or the group’s brand architecture needs to be organised.
3. The brand is keeping you out of opportunities you could win. You can see it in qualification processes and tenders.
4. The system has become disorganised. Every office, every product and every trade fair does its own thing. Nobody decides and everyone improvises.
5. A regulatory or accessibility change means digital touchpoints need to be changed. If the website has to be rebuilt, it is the right moment to make the most of the investment and redo the rest.

And the four signs that it is not the right time:

• You are not getting enough leads. A rebranding does not fix an acquisition problem. It only helps you connect better with the right customers once communication is established.
• The person running the company is tired of the logo. It is a real reason, we have literally heard it said like that, and it does not justify the budget.
• You are in the middle of an unfinished strategic change. Redesigning around a decision that is going to change usually creates complex processes, and the need to repeat the project a few months later.
• There is nobody internally who can make decisions. Without an interlocutor with authority, the project drags on and becomes diluted. It is the number one cause of cost overruns.

The four phases, with deliverables and timings

Broadly speaking, a complete rebranding goes through these 4 phases. However, there are factors that make it necessary to place more or less emphasis on certain aspects in order to achieve the objectives set. These include the starting point, the context (market maturity, how dynamic it is, number of stakeholders), the objective and the stakeholders and decision-makers.

These are the typical phases of the process:

Phase 1 — Diagnosis

What happens. This is the first strategic phase, in which we focus on understanding the brand’s situation both externally and internally. We gather information by interviewing key people in the company and customers; reviewing current communications; analysing the category and how competitors are positioned; and auditing existing touchpoints.

What you receive. A diagnosis report with the gaps and tensions identified and the decisions that need to be made.

At this stage, it is essential to speak both to real customers and to several representatives from the internal team (not only the person running the company). What the company or management believes it is communicating and what the customer and the team perceive do not always match, and that gap is the raw material of the project. It is the most uncomfortable phase, but it always provides a lot of value.

Phase 2 — Positioning

What happens. The brand promise, messaging pillars and other brand tools that define the strategic direction of the brand are agreed.

What you receive. Brand platform.

Without this phase, phase 3 becomes a discussion about personal taste, because there is no criterion against which to judge a proposal.

Phase 3 — Brand system

What happens. Visual territory, visual identity and verbal identity. This is where all the elements of the system are defined: logo, colour palette, typographic system, relationships between elements, and tone of voice.

What you receive. Complete identity and brand guidelines.

What you should demand here. That the identity is flexible enough to solve the different uses the brand will require, and that the guidelines explain that flexibility, rather than simply showing examples. A guideline that shows the logo in five sizes is a catalogue. One that explains what to do when a new case appears is a system.

Phase 4 — Implementation

What happens. Rollout across the website, document templates, signage, sales materials, trade fairs, HR. And training for the team that will maintain it.

What you receive. Final artwork for production and a team that knows how to apply it.

This phase is the one that gets cut when budgets are tight, and it can undermine the entire project. An identity that is not implemented does not exist.

What makes a rebranding more or less expensive?

Makes it more expensive:

• Large companies with many people or departments involved in the process.
• Multiple languages and markets.
• Brand architecture with sub-brands or product lines.
• Naming, especially when trademark availability searches are required.
• The starting point and depth of the research.
• The number and complexity of applications: highly digital and highly physical businesses, with many communication materials (social media, thought leadership, signage, packaging…)
• And the biggest one: a large decision-making committee without a single person responsible.

Makes it cheaper:

• One interlocutor with authority and availability.
• Organised and accessible material from day one.
• A scope agreed in writing before starting.
• Reusing what already works. Not every rebranding has to start from scratch, and saying so usually saves between 20% and 30%.

How to avoid having to do it again in three years

This is the part that matters most to us. Success in our work is based on giving our clients a valuable and useful asset —a well-defined brand with tools that make it easier to manage— and being available to support them after launch. Needing another rebranding in 3 years means, except in exceptional cases, that the previous process was not done properly.

And yet, it is a pattern we often see in the market: a well-built identity is delivered, it is implemented properly, and eighteen months later the marketing manager changes. The new person was not involved in the decisions behind the creation of the brand, does not know the reason behind anything and starts improvising. Inconsistencies appear and three years later, someone suggests a rebranding.

What is expensive is not this brand. It is having to build it again in three years.

In our experience, there are three key things that extend the life of a rebranding:

1. Document the why, not just the what. A solid brand needs a brand platform tailored to the company that is going to use it, with actionable tools and guidelines that explain the decisions behind the visual identity.
2. Make sure the brand pillars are clear to more than one person internally. If the criteria live in one person’s head and that person leaves, the criteria leave with them. Managing the internal launch of the brand properly is essential to ensure that the brand comes to life and evolves in the right direction.
3. Keep a point of contact open with whoever designed it. You do not need a contract: you need someone you can ask. A team that reviews the first adaptations, supervises or leads key activation materials, and identifies questions through regular conversations.

And the reason we insist on this. We have worked with several clients, such as URSA, Havaianas Europe and Amadeus, for more than nine years: This is not a promise that nobody will leave —nobody can promise that— but rather a length of time that appears on invoices and can be verified. The reason those brands have not had to start again from scratch is that the criteria were never lost when the team changed. In both, several stakeholders have changed along the way, and the system held up because we knew the criteria —we had them written down— and so did they.

How do you measure whether the rebranding has worked?

Without this, evaluation turns into an aesthetic discussion six months later. Decide on the metrics before you start and choose three, not ten. Our favourites, because they are the ones most directly related to a rebranding, are:

• Recognition and recall within your category, measured before and after.
• Conversion rate: A brand that explains itself well shortens the explanation phase and improves alignment with the target customer.
• Internal adoption: What percentage of the materials produced by the company are using the system after six months. It is the easiest to measure and the most honest.

The five most expensive mistakes

1. Starting with the logo. It means starting at the end.
2. Validating based on taste rather than criteria. “I’m not convinced” is not an actionable argument. “It does not respond to the promise we agreed on” is.
3. A large committee without a decision-maker. It multiplies the number of rounds and dilutes the proposal.
4. Cutting implementation. It turns an asset into a PDF.
5. Not budgeting for maintenance. The system needs someone to support it, even if it is only half a day per quarter.

How we work

We are a brand studio in Madrid. We do rebranding with a senior team and no account management layer: you speak directly to the people doing the work.

What we offer, listed:

• Brand diagnosis and customer interviews
• Brand strategy and positioning
• Naming and verbal identity
• Brand identity and visual system
• Brand guidelines and production templates
• Accessible web design and development (WCAG 2.1 AA)
• Implementation, training and ongoing support

Published price: €12,000–35,000. If your project does not fall within that range, we will tell you in the first call and guide you towards what does fit. It happens to us often and it is not a problem: we love helping and we know that being clear from the beginning saves a lot of time for both sides.