Why marketing and branding cost more than $50?

So many people don’t really know what are marketing and branding. Just yesterday I was on a Facebook business group and read comments about how $2,000 for a brand design was way too expensive and “you can get a logo for $50 instead”.

Sure you can. But will it be more than just pretty? More than simply great colours and fonts together? Will it help you convey your message and reach your goals? Will your audience understand who you are and what you do?

That’s now an entirely different story.

See, when you pay for a marketing strategist, you actually buy the service of a professional who will spend time (hours!) understand your business, who you are, what you do and how you do it. They will want to know your current situation and what you want to achieve, your challenges and your goals. They will speak with you to get to know your audience, who they are, what they want, what are their needs or problems, and how you are helping them with your products/services.

And once all this initial research phase is done, they will spend more time developing a strategy that is customised to you, defining your positioning and your buyer-persona, as well as determining a core message that resonates with your audience, so they know how you can help them solve the problems they might not even know they have and see you as THE solution!

Yes, good marketing is all of this. It is not just asset creation, articles, publications, social posts, multi-channel campaigns, etc. It will translate your company’s values, goals and mission. Your core message will resonate with your customers about their needs and it will convince them to act/buy. Marketing will make it clear to your buyers. 

This is why being clear on your goals and having a great understanding of what your customers are after is vital. And this can only happen with an audit, a strategy and a plan. You need to spend time upstream, before starting anything, to understand your business and who you try to sell to.

But let’s get back to our logo and design. A branding specialist (like Four Trees Media), will spend hours researching and studying your company and your audience. Only then they will start to work on finding a visual and design that will work with your audience, one that will convey who you are, what you do, how you can help them. And they will provide you usually with a minimum of 2 or 3 very different options for your review. 

So now, would you say $50 for a minimum of 15 hours of work is fair?