Ask what a rebrand costs and you will usually get "it depends". That is true and completely unhelpful, so here is a more direct answer.
The rough numbers
A logo on its own is the cheapest and least useful thing you can buy. It is a mark with no rules attached, so within a year you have four versions of it and nobody knows which is right.
What you actually want is an identity system: the mark, the typefaces, the colours, how photography should look, and the templates that let your team apply it without phoning anyone. In South Africa that work sits somewhere in the tens of thousands for a small business, and rises with the number of places it has to be applied — signage, packaging, vehicles, uniforms, a website.
The things that move the number most:
- How many touchpoints. One shop is not six shops. A single-location practice is not a franchise.
- Whether photography is included. Original photography is the single biggest differentiator for most businesses and it is a real production cost.
- Whether the website comes with it. Doing both together is cheaper than doing them separately, because the identity is designed knowing where it has to live.
- How much is already decided. If you know who you are and who you are for, we spend less time working it out.
When it is worth it
You have outgrown the identity. The logo was made when it was you and a laptop, and now there are fourteen staff and a warehouse. Customers are pricing you against businesses that look more established, and losing on that basis is expensive.
You are inconsistent enough that it shows. Three logo versions, two typefaces, signage that does not match the packaging. Customers do not consciously notice this; they just quietly conclude you are less organised than the competitor whose everything matches.
You are about to spend real money on marketing. Advertising an identity that does not land is the most expensive mistake in this whole area. Fix the thing first, then buy attention for it.
When it is not worth it
Your problem is that nobody knows you exist. A rebrand does not create demand. If your issue is reach, spend the money on being findable first.
You rebranded eighteen months ago. Brand equity compounds. Changing again resets it, and you rarely get back what you spent building recognition.
Nothing has actually changed. Boredom is not a business case. You look at your own logo a thousand times more than any customer does.
What we would tell you to do
If money is tight and you have to pick one thing, pick the website — but only if you already have a usable mark. If the mark itself is the problem, do the identity and the website together and skip everything else until they are earning.
The order that almost always works is: work out what you actually are, make it look like that, put it somewhere people can find it, then spend on getting them there. Doing those in a different order is how marketing budgets disappear.