Sidekicks builds brand identity for Shopify brands doing about $1M and up, and for the ones about to get there.
A project covers discovery, positioning, messaging, visual identity, and guidelines, from $10,000, and takes six to eight weeks. It is priced once.
Most brands need it before the content retainer, so the photography, the videos, and the ads have something to be consistent with.
- From $10,000
- Six to eight weeks
- Priced once
The symptom
The logo was made the week before launch. The product pages say one thing, the ads say another, and the email sounds like a third person wrote it.
Customers cannot tell what you stand for, and neither can the person writing your captions.
It shows up as creative that never quite lands, because there is nothing for it to land on.
What a brand identity project includes
- 01
Discovery: interviews with you, your team, and five to ten customers, a read of the reviews and the support inbox, and a look at the brands you sit beside on the shelf and in the feed.
- 02
Positioning: who the brand is for, what it stands against, and the one sentence that says why it exists. Written to be used, never framed.
- 03
Messaging: the tagline, the three things you say about the product, the tone rules, and the words you never use. Enough for any copywriter to work from.
- 04
Visual identity: logo system, color, type, photography direction, and the layout rules for a product page, an ad, and an email.
- 05
Guidelines: one document with every file, that a new designer or a new agency picks up on day one.
- 06
Rollout: a plan for the store, the email templates, the ad templates, and the social profiles, done by us when we run those channels and handed over when we do not.
How it runs
Discovery in weeks one and two. Positioning and messaging in week three, agreed before anything is drawn.
Visual identity in weeks four to six, two directions and then one. Guidelines and files in week seven, rollout in week eight.
You see work every week, and nothing moves to the next stage until you have signed off on the one before.
Price and timeline
| What | Price | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Brand identity, the full project | From $10,000 | Six to eight weeks |
| Positioning and messaging only | From $4,000 | Three weeks |
| Refresh of an identity whose positioning holds | From $6,000 | Four weeks |
Scope sets the price inside the range. More products, packaging, or a name change move it up. Packaging design and naming are quoted on their own.
Why the same team
A brand built by the people who will shoot the content and run the ads is the handoff that does not happen.
The photography direction is written for the shoots we are about to do.
The messaging is written for the emails and the ads we are about to send.
The guidelines get used, because we are the ones using them.
What we need from you
- Two hours of your time in discovery
- Ten customers who will take a call
- Your sales by product
- Anything you have ever written about why the brand exists
- One decision maker who signs off at each stage within two business days
Questions founders ask about branding
01How much does brand identity cost for an ecommerce brand?
Agencies publish $5,000 to $50,000 for identity work, and the middle of that range is where most projects land. Sidekicks starts at $10,000 for the full project.
02Can we get a logo on its own?
Brand identity is sold as the full project, because a logo without positioning gets redone within a year. If the positioning already holds, the refresh covers the visual work alone.
03Do we need this before the content retainer?
Not always. If the brand has a clear point of view and the visuals hold up, we start the retainer. If every shoot would be a guess at the look, the project comes first, and it is the better month to spend.
04Will you rename us?
Naming is its own project, quoted separately. We will say on the first call if we think the name is the problem.
05What do we get at the end?
The guidelines, every file in every format, the templates for the store, email, and ads, and the positioning on one page you can hand to anyone.
Ready, player two
See your next six months before you spend a dollar.
The plan is the proposal, so you know exactly what we would do and what it costs before you decide anything.
- 1Tell us your store, your ad spend, and your list size.
- 2We build your six-month plan from the outside, with no logins.
- 3We walk you through it on a call, with the price included.