What is a Rebranding RFP and Why Business Owners Need It

Need to find the perfect branding agency partner? A rebranding RFP (Request For Proposal) can help with that. No matter if you’re rebranding because you’re scaling your business, adding new products, or because you want to change your market position.

With a well-made rebranding RFP, you’ll find the ideal branding agency you need in record time.

In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about a rebranding RFP. From the explanation all the way down to the step-by-step guide, you’ll come out of this article ready to create your own rebranding RFP.

What is a Rebranding RFP

Before we start, let’s quickly explain what an RFP document is and what makes it so important.

RFP is short for Request for Proposal. It is a way to gather business proposals from different companies for a particular project.

A properly detailed RFP provides branding agencies with all the information needed to submit their proposals without asking any extra questions.

While a normal RFP is generally used for more basic tasks like general marketing work. A rebranding RFP lets you explain what you need in terms of rebranding.

Same as before, the idea of an RFP is to invite companies (in this case, agencies) to bid and submit proposals for your rebranding project.

The greatest benefit of a rebranding RFP is that it helps you compare the services and projects of all the agencies that sent proposals.

This saves you a lot of time by letting branding agencies provide you with all the information you need to decide whom to pick.

A solid rebranding RFP should include important details such as what rebranding service you’re looking for, what your budget looks like, as well as how fast you’ll need it done.

You want to be as thorough as possible with what you expect from branding agencies. This way, they can make sure that they can fulfill your expectations and ensure that everything is created properly.

How to Write a Rebranding RFP

So you know what a rebranding RFP is, now comes the important part: writing the RFP and making sure several key points are hit.

What should it include?

Every strong rebranding RFP should include the following information:

• Budget: To avoid having a bad experience, make sure you are transparent about your budget.

• Ongoing challenges: Explain in detail what your brand’s main pain points are and why you’re searching for a rebranding strategy.

• Services needed: If you have a rough idea of which services you need for your rebranding, mention them. Despite this, make sure you’re open to suggestions from the branding agencies submitting their proposals.

• Your brand’s background: The more they know about your brand, the easier it will be for them to give you an exceptional rebranding proposal.

• Contact information: It should go without saying, but add your contact information so branding agencies can send their proposals.

• Deadline: Include what date you expect this project to be completed by. Extra points if you can include a starting date as well.

With all this information in mind, let’s go through all the steps needed to write an exceptional rebranding RFP:

Don’t know where to start your rebranding process? Let us help.

1. Brief business introduction

Everything related to explaining your brand goes here. Talk about what sets your company apart from the competition, what products or services you provide, and how your company came into fruition.

Most introductions should include this:

• Website

• All social media accounts.

• Industry and specific niche, if any.

• Brand’s history.

• Your main target audience.

If you feel like you need to share more about your brand to explain it better, feel free to do so here. The more information, the better.

2. Explain what challenges you are facing.

Explain every challenge you’re facing right now and why rebranding is the solution you found for it. The easier it is for branding agencies to understand how you approach issues, the faster it’ll be for them to propose a project suited to your needs.

If one of your challenges is branding inconsistencies across all channels, then make sure to show those inconsistencies in your RFP.

Remember to give as much detail and context as possible.

3. Give an overview of your target audience.

Explain to who you market. Provide your demographic information. This helps branding agencies tailor their proposals to your target audience.

4. Give details of your preferred branding agency.

Being clear about your expectations for branding agencies helps you filter out proposals that don’t match your ideals.

While some sacrifices might be needed if your requirements are too high, setting a bar helps agencies know whether they can work with you or not.

5. Be transparent about your budget.

Make sure you clearly state your budget in your rebranding RFP. Ideally, explain if it’s a fixed budget or if there is room for negotiation.

This will help branding companies adjust and organize a proposal that fits your budget and needs.

It’ll also let them create a plan with extra services at a discounted price as long as you are willing to go over your estimated budget.

Considering most agencies send an average of 150 proposals every year, being unwilling to negotiate on your budget can be a reason for them to move on.

6. Be thorough with your deliverables.

You want to be as detailed as possible here since it’ll help branding agencies know what exact deliverables you want for this project.

Some ideas for rebranding deliverables are:

• Brand identity redesign

• Website redesign

• Brand audit

• Brand identity

Don’t forget about your budget! While it’s great to list all the deliverables that you’d like to have, it’s also important to remember your set budget.

We highly recommend you do a bit of research when it comes to the prices of the deliverables you’re looking for. This way it’ll be easier for you to differentiate between your non-negotiable deliverables and the optional ones.

Don’t be scared to remove optional deliverables if it allows for more work on your non-negotiable deliverables.

7. Project timeframe and expectations

Don’t forget to add what expectations you have for the branding agency time-wise. This can include hitting important deadlines and or milestones.

This will help branding agencies organize and understand whether they have the time and resources to work on this project.

Do you need your rebranding done in record time? Give us a call.

8. Submission deadline

Remember to set a deadline for proposals so agencies know how long they have to work on their proposals. While not super important, you can add what type of document you’d prefer to have those proposals sent as.

Also, don’t forget to add all your contact information! While we shouldn’t have to say this, it might be easy to forget with all the other important parts being added.

If you follow all these steps, you’ll have an amazing rebranding RFP done in no time.

Tips for a Better Rebranding RFP

While we went over a detailed step-by-step process of how to write a good rebranding RFP. The tips below will help drive the point home.

Establish clear and attainable goals.

It’s important for you to create and add goals that are doable within the timeframe that is in.

If you ask for a complete website rebrand in just one day, agencies may not want to work with you. You’ll likely receive poor-quality proposals from agencies eager for a quick job.

Don’t make the RFP too long.

While we did explain the importance of creating a detailed rebranding RFP, we didn’t mean the document had to be fifty pages long. Make sure you explain everything without adding a lot of fluff to your RFP.

The last thing you want is for branding agencies to not propose at all because the rebranding RFP is full of unnecessary clutter.

Send Your Rebranding RFP To Us Instead

Your time is important, so why waste it waiting for days for different branding agencies to send you their proposals?

Here at Blacksmith, we pride ourselves on delivering results in record time. With our expert team of designers and strategists, we’ll make sure your rebranding project is as smooth and stress-free as possible.

With dozens of rebranding projects under our belt, we are certain we can bring you the results you’re looking for.

Still uncertain? Contact us and we’ll answer any questions you might have.