How long does the branding process take?

How much time do you need to set aside for the branding process? 

One question we field regularly is, how long will it take to create a brand? And despite what some may tell you, the answer is not straightforward.

Without a brand, making sound business and marketing decisions is nearly impossible. This underscores the urgency and criticality of time in creating a brand.

When looking at reinvigorating your business, branding is often at the bottom of the list. In an emergency, it's easy to jump to social media marketing to run ads and try and quickly boost sales. But what happens when the target market doesn't understand or care enough to buy? 

Setting your brand's foundations or creating a brand personality can have a significant and enduring impact. It's not just about the present but also about the future. 

Whether you're refreshing your brand, rebranding, or even creating something from scratch - you'll want a smooth resolution and the shortest timeframe possible so you can start marketing and making sales. Sometimes, knowing when to rebrand is hard; here's When's the Right Time to Rebrand? to see if it's right for you.

Let's explore the various factors that impact brand development. And remember...Every decision you make is affected by branding.

The Brand Design Process

Before understanding how long it takes, we need to discuss how we create our brands.

Now we should warn you, there are shortcuts to be had, take them at your peril. One in particular jumps you from step 1, all the way to step 10. But what you miss, can be really costly in the long term.

1. Book a Discovery Call
2. Onboarding and setting up a Project Management system.
3. Complete a thorough Research and discovery phase, including a Brand Audit if your brand already exists. 
4. Customer, staff and C-Suite interviews.‍
5. Brand Strategy Workshop, if the audit uncovers the need for one or you don't have one.‍
6. Customer and market research, we need to understand your industry, its history, your customers and your competition.‍
7. Brand Strategy document creation‍
8. Naming (if needed)
9. Messaging workshops‍
10. Moodboarding, before any conceptual work, moodboards help direct the brand's style, giving us logo inspiration.‍
11. Visual Identity Creation - logos and icons are sketched based on the strategy, research and moodboard work. Sketching evolves the imagination and helps us see logos in different ways.‍
12. Presentations and chance for feedback - a thorough exploration of brand concepts will be presented for you to see, with designs shown in context so you can visualise how it's starting to take shape. Your role is to gather concise feedback to allow me to develop the logo accurately.‍
13. Visual Asset Creation - and delivery of final assets.
14. Creation of Brand Guidelines
15. Website Strategy
16. SEO Keyword research‍
17. Copywriting
18. Website Design & Development‍
19. Photography/Videography‍
20. Execution of the Marketing Strategy
21. Launch and update of Brand Guidelines
22. Brand Management (weekly-fortnightly meetings)
23. Measure and grow – An evaluation of how customers perceive the brand. This allows us to know what to adjust to help the business reach its growth goals.

As you can see, we kick things off by getting to know your business on a discovery call, research, brand audits, interviews, brand strategy workshops and messaging workshops.

An average branding project takes 6 months

Based on past projects from step 1 to completion, the average brand project takes 6 months. 

Before you leave this page, this number has been skewed by projects that took 2-3 weeks and 12 months. 

The reason that some of them blow out to 12 months is very circumstantial and often an indication of a complex rebrand. 

Refreshes and branding from scratch are typically shorter and closer to 4 months for a full-scale project, but timelines have to be stuck rigidly, and everything has to be well communicated and for someone to keep everyone in line. 

There are a huge number of factors that affect the timelines, so let's take a look. 

It depends on picking the correct branding approach

As mentioned above, you might need a brand refresh, a rebrand, or to begin from a clean slate. Rather than picking what you think you need, it's worth spending a little time auditing where your brand currently is.

A brand audit looks at your brand from a verbal, visual, competitor and behavioural aspect, which helps determine the level of branding work. 

Your branding agency mustn't make assumptions and try to convince you that a full-scale rebrand is needed; sometimes, simply clearing up the message and tweaking the visuals will be enough.

Whatever the outcome, steps 1 and 2 are the most critical steps. The Discovery Call tells us about your project, and a Brand Audit stops you from spending unnecessary time and money on brand strategy workshops or visual identity design when you potentially don't need it. 

It depends on you, your team and how you collaborate

As a business owner or marketing professional, you are one of the key cogs in the branding process. Your role is crucial, and so is your team's. Select that core team carefully, as they will be in the branding process every step of the way. Having someone on that team who drives the project and keeps the whole team on track. It might be you or your branding team that will drive things along, too. Either way, each step, from choosing a name for your brand to website mockups to the launch — requires your team's feedback. 

The most effective brands are collaborative between the branding agency and the client. Your involvement is not just desired. It's necessary. If that collaboration is missing, the branding process takes much longer and can incur additional costs. Your input and feedback are invaluable in creating a brand representing your business.

At this point (step 2), a smooth onboarding process and a robust project management system, like the one we use, Asana, are crucial. They help keep everything on track and to budget, ensuring that the branding process is efficient and effective. Organisation and clear communication are key to a successful branding project.

It depends on whether you need to build the Brand's DNA

Your audit maybe uncovered the need to revisit the Brand's DNA, or perhaps you never touched it; there's no judgement here. Whatever happens, it is vital to set a strong foundation and uncover what your brands stand for, how they help customers, and who the customers are. And, it can, unfortunately, take up a big chunk of time.

It can go a little bit like this:

• Brand Strategy Workshop (1 day - 1 week)
• Customer research – calls, focus groups, surveys (1-3 weeks)
• Market research (1-3 week)
• Brand Strategy document (2 weeks)
• Naming (1 day - 2 months)

There's a significant disparity between some of those topics because the variables are so wide that customer and market research can take an unusually long time, depending on customer availability. At the same time, naming can be either simple or extremely complex.

Suppose the core team is also unavailable or struggling to reach a consensus. In that case, making final decisions can be very difficult, which will delay the branding process.

It depends on which branding design team you work with

The team you pick to work with will influence how long things take. The processes they set out will have an impact. The team's efficiency in communicating and being available to implement your feedback.

Earlier, you audited your brand to decide whether you need a rebrand or redesign, and you need to do the same thing when picking the branding agency you work with.

There's a few things to ask your agency:

1. How many projects do you have on at the moment? This routes out if the team are overloaded with projects.
2. What stage are the projects at? This tells you even more – if there are 10 different projects at the concept stage, you'll be somewhere in that mix. Unless they are huge agencies, delivery might be slow.
3. What's your process? Things get lost in the cracks if the agency isn't crystal clear on the process.

Your branding agency must have the capacity for your work and get a firm timeline for the moodboarding, visual identity concepts and developments, and whatever the brand rollout looks like. This way, the team can be held accountable. 

Your team and you must be available for feedback, as does the design team.

It depends on what you need to launch (deliverables)

These are the customer-facing touch points or marketing collateral you need to present your brand professionally. Common deliverables include:

• Corporate identity materials - letterheads, compliments slips, business cards, slide decks
• Social media templates
• Creative pieces (posters, t-shirts, mugs, promo gifts, etc.)
• Signage (window decals, storefront signage)
• Website design and Development
• Copywriting
• Videoshoots
• Photoshoots

The type and number of marketing touchpoints will significantly impact the total time frame.

E.g., if you're building a brand from scratch, the website needs to be created during that process. The type of website you're creating influences the timeline of the website. If it's a simple site between 1 and 5 pages, it would take less time than a complex, functionality-rich website. I.e., sites with built-in memberships or complex embedded payment systems.

Our advice on time allowance

Remember, every decision made affects your brand. So it's essential to get it done right the first time. It makes the best use of your time and money.

Our advice is to give yourself plenty of time to go through the process. Cultivating your brand should be at the top of your list, not the bottom.

The branding process aims to affect your brand perception in the market, so it needs to be done right the first time. Every detail must be carefully considered, as the outcome will affect your brand's sales and growth.

You might also be wondering...

How much time do I need to set aside for a branding project?

This depends on how many decision-makers get involved and what areas of branding you look at.

Here's a rough breakdown of everything. 

• Brand Audits (2 hours) + Presentation of findings (0.5 hours).
• Brand Strategy Workshops (4-8 hours) + Document presentation (1.5 hours) + Feedback from you (1.5 hours)
• Moodboard Feedback (1 hour)
• Brand Concept + Development feedback (3-4 hours)
• Website Design feedback (1-2 hours)
• Copywriting feedback, extraction of information and interviews (4-8 hours)
• Marketing and Customer Journey map development (4-8 hours)
• Final tweaks before rollout (2 hours)

The Branding Process can be lengthy, but if you're gonna do it, do it just once and get it right.