B2B rebranding is one of those projects that sounds straightforward until you're actually doing it. New logo, updated messaging, maybe a fresh website. Easy, right?
Not quite.
It takes longer than you expect. It can cost more than you budgeted. And if you skip the hard strategic work upfront, you'll spend six months building something that doesn't actually fix the problem.
This guide walks you through everything involved in a B2B rebrand–figuring out if you need one, understanding how the process works, knowing what you'll pay, and avoiding the mistakes that turn a rebrand into a very expensive mess.
Why Rebrand? Signs that B2B Companies Need to Rebrand
Most companies rebrand because something broke. Maybe it's been breaking for a while (you've been losing deals to competitors nobody's even heard of). Or maybe it broke all at once (you just acquired another company and now you've got two brands and zero clarity).
Either way, you're here trying to figure out if your brand is actually the problem, or if you just need to update your website a lil’ bit and call it a day.
The signs that you need a real B2B rebrand usually show up in a few specific ways:
Your brand makes you invisible to buyers
78% of B2B buyers only consider products they'd already heard of before starting their research. For enterprise buyers, that jumps to 86%.
If your audience is full of prospects who've never heard of you, you're starting every deal from behind. You have to work twice as hard to build credibility. Buyers go with competitors who "feel safer" even when your product is better.
When prospects consistently choose established names over you, your brand isn't doing enough to signal trust and stability. You need a rebrand that positions you as a credible player worth considering.
You can't sell into the market you're actually targeting
Your brand was built for one type of buyer, but now you're selling to someone completely different.
Maybe you're targeting enterprise now but your brand identity still screams startup. Or you've shifted focus to technical buyers but your messaging is still written for executives. Or you're trying to break into a new industry and your brand is too closely tied to your original market.
When there's a mismatch between who your brand speaks to and who you're actually trying to reach, every deal becomes harder than it needs to be. A rebrand realigns your positioning with your actual target market.
Your messaging is all over the place
Your sales team pitches the product one way. Marketing describes it differently. And when prospects land on your website, they're confused about what you actually do.
This fragmentation happens when different teams create their own versions of the brand story without a single source of truth to work from. Each department optimizes for their own needs, and the result is a brand that says different things depending on who's talking.
A rebrand creates a unified brand strategy that gives everyone the same story to tell.
Your customers churn because they're the wrong fit
High churn is expensive. So is a pipeline full of customers who constantly ask for features that don't match your roadmap.
If your brand attracts people who leave six months later, you're burning budget on the wrong audience. Sometimes this happens because your positioning was built for a different customer than the one you're serving now. Or your brand messaging emphasizes benefits that appeal to buyers who aren't actually a good fit for your product.
A rebrand lets you reposition so you attract customers who stick around.
Your product or positioning has evolved beyond your brand
Your product didn't pivot overnight. It evolved gradually. You added features. Expanded capabilities. Solved new problems.
But your brand stayed frozen in time. Your website still describes version 1.0. Your brand messaging focuses on use cases you've moved beyond. Prospects who used to understand what you did are now confused about what you've become.
This kind of drift happens slowly, which makes it easy to miss. But when your current brand no longer reflects what your product actually does, a rebrand brings them back into sync.
Your brand isn’t being used consistently (if at all)
Different teams are using different logos. Different colors. Different fonts. Different ways of describing what you do.
This usually happens when brand guidelines either don't exist or they're so complicated that nobody bothers following them. Maybe you DIY'd the brand internally and it spiraled. Maybe an old agency gave you a 200-page document nobody ever opened.
Whatever the cause, the result is the same: your brand looks inconsistent across touchpoints.
A rebrand gives you brand guidelines that work for how your team actually operates. Clear enough to follow. Flexible enough to use. So your brand stays consistent without needing a dedicated person policing every asset.
Your company name is causing problems
Maybe your name references a business model you've moved on from. Maybe it's confusing or impossible to spell. Maybe customers think your product name is your company name and vice versa.
You can work around a mediocre name for a while. You add explanatory taglines everywhere. You correct people constantly.
But if your name actively creates confusion or limits how you can grow, eventually the workaround becomes more expensive than just fixing it.
Your brand has a reputation problem
Sometimes a B2B company faces trust issues that run deeper than an outdated logo. Maybe you've been associated with poor customer service or product issues. Maybe there's been leadership turnover and the market still associates you with the previous regime. Maybe you're stuck being perceived as a legacy solution when you've completely rebuilt your technology.
These perception problems stick around. Small tweaks to your visual identity or messaging won't change how buyers feel about you. You need a rebrand that fundamentally resets how the market sees you.
Once you've figured out you need to do something, the next question is whether you need a full rebrand or if a brand refresh would do the job.
Regardless of which you choose, the process of solving the problem is roughly the same—it starts with the strategic work. Many B2B rebranding projects fail because companies skip the foundational work or treat it like a design project instead of a strategic one. They rebrand halfway. They skip the alignment work. They convince themselves it's just about updating the website or tweaking some copy.
So what does a proper B2B rebrand or refresh actually look like?
Rebranding a B2B Company: Step-by-Step Process
Every B2B rebranding or refresh project is different, but the general process follows a similar pattern. Here's how a typical project unfolds from start to finish.
Step 1: Get stakeholders aligned before you touch anything
The biggest mistake companies make is jumping straight into design. They want to see logos. They want color palettes. They want to feel like progress is happening.
But if you haven't agreed on what your brand is actually supposed to communicate, a pretty new logo won't fix anything.
B2B rebranding requires buy-in from people who might not normally work together. Your Head of Marketing needs to agree with Sales on how you're positioning the product. Your CEO needs to stop describing the company in ways nobody's heard before. Product needs to understand what story Marketing is trying to tell. Marketing needs to understand what Product is building.
This alignment work isn't optional. Without it, you'll build a brand identity that looks beautiful, but which doesn’t actually make your unique value obvious. This is dangerous, because brands like these end up gathering dust.
The best way to start is with a focused workshop that gets key stakeholders (Head of Marketing, CEO, Head of Sales, Product lead) aligned on what needs to change and why. This prevents you from wasting months building something that doesn't address the actual problem.
At BrandStack, we start every project with a Brand Strategy Session, a half-day workshop with your key stakeholders (Head of Marketing, CEO, Head of Sales, Product lead). A week later, you get an Action Plan that shows exactly what your brand needs and the steps to get there. This stops you from spending months (and money) building the wrong thing.
Step 2: Audit what you have (even if you hate it)
Before you build something new, you need to understand what's broken about what you currently have.
A brand audit looks at how customers, employees, and prospects actually perceive you right now. What do they think you do? Who do they think you're for? What do they associate with your brand?
Sometimes you'll discover that certain parts of your brand are actually landing well. Maybe your customers love your straightforward tone. Maybe your visual identity feels dated but your name has strong recognition. These are things you don't want to throw away in a rebrand.
Other times, the gap between how you see yourself and how the market sees you is painful. But there's useful information in that, too
You also need to look at competitors. Not to copy them, but to understand where you can actually differentiate. If everyone in your space is using the same visual language and saying the same things, you need to figure out how to break out of that pattern.
Looking at real-world examples can help you understand what works and what doesn't. We've compiled a collection of [B2B rebranding examples] that show how companies approached their rebrands, what they changed, and what results they got.
B2B brands often fall into category traps–stock photos of people in suits shaking hands, vague language about "innovation" and "transformation," blue and gray color palettes that all blur together.
If your rebrand just makes you look like everyone else, you've wasted your money. Same goes if you throw away the parts of your brand that were actually working.
Step 3: Define what you stand for (and get specific)
Positioning is where many B2B rebrands fall apart.
Companies want to be everything to everyone. They want to say they're "the leading platform for enterprise teams who need scalable solutions." That's not positioning. That's word soup.
Good positioning answers these questions clearly:
- Who is this product actually for?
- What problem does it solve that nothing else solves this way?
- Why should someone believe you can deliver on that promise?
In B2B, positioning also needs to work across a buying committee. You're not selling to one person. You're selling to a CFO who cares about cost, a technical buyer who cares about implementation, and an end user who cares about whether it's actually usable.
This is where B2B differs from B2C. In B2C, you're appealing to individual emotions and preferences. In B2B, you're providing the rational business case that multiple stakeholders need to build consensus.
Your brand strategy needs to give each of these people a reason to say yes.
Step 4: Write messaging that Sales will actually use
Your brand messaging framework is where you define how to talk about your brand consistently across every touchpoint.
This includes your positioning statement, your value propositions, proof points, and the language you use to describe what you do. Think of it as the master document that everyone pulls from when they need to explain the company.
In B2B, your Sales team is the real test. If they can't use your messaging in actual conversations with buyers, it doesn't work. Maybe it's too vague. Maybe it's full of jargon that sounds good in a boardroom but dies on a sales call. Maybe it doesn't address the actual objections buyers have.
The best brand messaging for B2B is clear, specific, and backed by proof. You can't just say you're "innovative" or "best-in-class." You need ROI data, case studies, technical validation. Your messaging framework should give Sales the language and the evidence they need to close deals, not corporate speak they'll ignore.
Step 5: Build a visual identity that actually reflects your messaging
Once you know what your brand stands for, you can start making visual decisions that make sense.
Your visual identity–logo, colors, typography, imagery–should reinforce your positioning, not contradict it. If you're positioning yourself as a premium, enterprise-grade solution, your visual identity needs to look credible and polished. If you're positioning as the accessible, easy-to-use alternative, your visual identity should feel approachable.
In B2B, your visual identity also needs to work across a lot of different contexts. Website. Pitch decks. Conference booths. Product interfaces. LinkedIn ads. Sales one-pagers. If your logo or visual system only looks good in one specific context, it will break as you try to scale.
Step 6: Build a brand system that's easy to use
Once you've got your strategy and messaging sorted, you need to package it in a way your team can actually use.
This is where many rebranding projects fall apart. You pay an agency to create a 200-page PDF full of rules about logo usage, color specifications, and typography hierarchies. Nobody reads it. Nobody uses it. Six months later, your brand is inconsistent again because the guidelines were too complicated to follow.
What you actually need is a brand system. Not just guidelines, but templates, examples, and assets that make it easy for anyone on your team to create something on-brand without having to figure it out from scratch.
That means slide deck templates your Sales team can customize. Social media assets Marketing can adapt. Email signatures that are already built. One-pagers that follow the brand without requiring someone to read a manual first.
The goal is to make doing it right easier than doing it wrong.
At BrandStack, we build brand systems with this in mind–guidelines that are simple enough to follow without a designer on speed dial, and templates that actually get used. We also advocate for regular check-ins to make sure things are going smoothly.
Step 7: Roll out internally before you go public
One of the biggest mistakes in B2B rebranding is launching externally before your internal team is ready.
Your employees need to understand the new brand before your customers do. If your Sales team finds out about the rebrand the same morning prospects do, you've created a mess.
Internal rollout means:
- Training sessions that explain why the rebrand happened and what's changing
- Updated templates for pitch decks, proposals, and email signatures
- Clear communication about what stays the same (so people don't panic)
- Making your team feel involved, not blindsided
When your team understands and believes in the new brand, they become your best advocates. When they're confused or feel left out, they'll undermine it without even meaning to.
Step 8: Launch externally with a plan (not just a post)
Your external launch needs to be coordinated. That means updating your website, social profiles, email signatures, sales materials, and any other customer-facing touchpoints at the same time.
If prospects land on your website and see the new brand, then get a pitch deck with the old logo, it looks sloppy. Inconsistency signals that you don't have your act together.
Your launch should also explain why the rebrand happened in a way that makes customers feel included, not alienated. Long-time customers can feel weird about change. If you just drop a new logo on them with no context, they might assume you've been acquired or that the product they love is going away.
Frame the rebrand as an evolution that reflects where the company is going, while respecting where it's been.
Step 9: Plan for brand residue (because it's going to happen)
Even with a coordinated launch, old brand assets will stick around longer than you want.
Maybe a partner is still using your old logo on their site. Maybe there's a case study PDF floating around with outdated branding. Maybe someone on your team forgot to update their email signature and has been sending it to prospects for two months.
This is called "brand residue" and it's inevitable. The goal isn't to eliminate it entirely on day one. The goal is to minimize it and have a plan for phasing out old assets over time.
In B2B, where sales cycles are long and materials get reused, brand residue can linger for months. That's fine as long as you're actively working to clean it up.
Step 10: Measure what's actually working
You need to know if your rebrand is doing what you wanted it to do.
That means defining success metrics before you launch. In B2B, success looks different than B2C. You're not tracking consumer sentiment or social engagement. You're tracking whether you're getting into more consideration sets, whether deals are closing faster, whether Sales feels confident using the new positioning, and whether you're attracting the right buyers (not just more buyers).
Whatever your goals were, track whether you're making progress. This might mean measuring brand awareness among your target accounts, monitoring win rates in Sales, surveying whether buyers perceive you as credible and established, or tracking whether you're showing up in analyst reports or vendor evaluations.
If something isn't working, adjust. A rebrand isn't set in stone. If your messaging isn't landing the way you expected, you can refine it. If certain visual elements aren't working across all contexts, you can tweak them.
The companies that get rebranding right treat it as an ongoing process, not a one-time project.
Typical B2B Rebranding Timeline
Most B2B rebranding projects take 3-6 months from kickoff to launch. Smaller projects or brand refreshes can happen faster (6-12 weeks). Larger projects involving naming, extensive stakeholder alignment, or complex organizations can take 6-12 months.
A typical timeline breaks down like this:
- Weeks 1-2: Stakeholder alignment, kickoff, audit
- Weeks 3-6: Strategy development, positioning, messaging framework
- Weeks 7-10: Visual identity design, iteration
- Weeks 11-14: Brand guidelines, asset creation, internal rollout
- Weeks 15-16: External launch, monitoring
You also need to consider your rollout plan. Do you want a new website as part of the rebrand? Most companies do. For mid-sized businesses, that can add another 3-6 months, depending on the size of your site.
This assumes decisions get made on time, feedback is consolidated, and you're not dealing with extensive legal hurdles around naming or trademarks. In reality, most projects take longer.
How much does rebranding cost?
If you're Googling "how much does rebranding cost," you're probably hoping for a number. A budget you can plug into a spreadsheet and take to your CFO.
Unfortunately, B2B rebranding costs vary wildly depending on what you're actually doing. A brand refresh that updates your visual identity costs a lot less than a full rebrand with new positioning, messaging, and a name change.
But we can give you ballpark figures and help you understand what drives the cost up or down.
What you're actually paying for
For a full B2B rebrand or refresh that includes brand strategy, positioning, messaging, and visual identity, expect to pay anywhere from $25k to $150k+.
On the lower end ($25k-$50k), you're working with a smaller agency or specialist team. You'll get solid strategy and design work, but the scope will be tighter. Fewer rounds of revisions. Less hand-holding through implementation. This is also the territory of brand refreshes—in these cases you’re mostly paying for the strategy + a light touch up, not a huge rollout.
In the mid-range ($50k-$100k), you're getting more stakeholder workshops, more refinement, and more support with rollout. This is where most B2B companies land if they're serious about getting it right.
On the higher end ($100k+), you're working with a large agency or dealing with a complex organization that needs extensive alignment work. Maybe you're rebranding across multiple markets. Maybe you need a new name and all the legal work that comes with it. Maybe you're a public company with compliance requirements.
What drives the cost up
Certain things make rebranding projects more expensive:
Naming: If you need a new name, add $15k-$50k to your budget. Naming involves legal trademark searches, domain availability checks, linguistic testing, and a lot of iteration. It's one of the hardest parts of any rebrand.
Stakeholder alignment: The more people who need to weigh in, the longer everything takes. If you've got a large executive team, multiple departments, or a board that wants approval rights, expect the timeline (and cost) to increase.
Implementation support: Some agencies just hand you the files and wish you luck. Others help you roll out the brand across your website, sales materials, product, and marketing channels. The more implementation support you need, the more you'll pay.
Market complexity: If you're operating in multiple countries or markets, your rebrand needs to work across different languages, cultural contexts, and regulatory environments. That adds complexity and cost.
What you can do to keep costs down
You don't have to blow your entire budget to get a good rebrand. Here's how to keep costs reasonable:
Be clear about scope: Know what you actually need before you start. If you don't need a new name, don't pay for naming work. If your positioning is solid, focus on visual identity and messaging. (We can help you define the scope with a Brand Strategy Session.)
Make decisions quickly: The longer a project drags on, the more it costs. Consolidate feedback. Empower one person to make final calls. Don't loop in new stakeholders halfway through who want to relitigate decisions you've already made.
Do some work in-house: If you've got a capable team, handle parts of the rollout yourself. Update your own slide templates. Write your own internal communications. Use the agency for strategy, important copy, and design, then execute the rest internally.
Start with a strategy session: Before committing to a full rebrand, invest in a workshop or strategy session that helps you figure out what you actually need. You might discover you don't need a full rebrand at all–just a brand refresh or better messaging.
The real cost of cutting corners
A cheap rebrand creates more problems than it solves. Your Sales team won't use messaging that doesn't work. Your visual identity will look amateurish next to competitors. Your stakeholders won't buy into a brand they didn't have input on.
Then six months later, you're back where you started—except now you've wasted time and money on something you have to redo.
“Last year, I worked on a rebrand project for a client that had already gone through a rebrand six months earlier. They’d tried to do a “quick and dirty” refresh of their business—but the result didn’t actually reflect the unique value of the business or make it obvious why someone should work with them. We thankfully got them to a better place, but they could have saved some time and energy by slowing down!”
Grace Baldwin, Co-Founder of BrandStack
The biggest cost isn't what you pay an agency. It's what you lose by having a brand that doesn't work. Deals you don't close because prospects don't take you seriously. Customers who churn because your brand attracted the wrong people. Time wasted because your team can't agree on how to talk about the company.
What we’ve learned: If you’re going to do it, do it properly. Invest in the strategic side of things, and save on the actual execution. You can get pretty far with a brand that looks basic as long as it actually says something you believe in.
Not sure what your brand actually needs?
Most companies jump into a rebrand without knowing if that's even what they need. Maybe you need a full rebrand. Maybe a brand refresh would do the job. Maybe you just need better messaging and your visual identity is fine.
Before you spend six months and £50k going in the wrong direction, figure out what's actually broken.
Our Brand Strategy Sessions gets your key stakeholders in a room for half a day to diagnose what needs to change. A week later, you get an Action Plan that tells you exactly what to fix and how to do it.
Use it to guide your RFP process. Use it to scope the work for your in-house team. Or work with us to execute it. Whatever makes sense for your business.
Book your Strategy Session and stop guessing.
