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Brand Budget Calculator

How much brand investment your category actually rewards. Three inputs, one honest range, anchored on a framework, not a hunch.

S9 · BBC-01 READY Rev 2.026
01Annual revenue

Your last full year's top-line. Roughly accurate is fine. The output is directional.

$
02Category

Pick the closest. Each rewards brand spend differently.

03Current brand spend

As a % of annual revenue. Brand only, not all marketing. Ignore demand-gen and paid acquisition.

0.50 %

Drag the slider (0%–5%), or type a value below.

%
Studio Nine · London Brand Budget Calculator S9 · BBC · MK1
Under the hood…

Each category sits on a spectrum from perception-led (brand earns most of the premium) to operations-led (it earns least). The ranges below are what we've seen work for clients, not laws of physics.

  • A · Premium / luxury: 1.0%–2.5% of revenue.
  • B · B2B, low switching cost: 0.6%–1.4%.
  • C · B2B, high switching cost: 0.3%–0.8%.
  • D · Consumer / prosumer SaaS: 0.8%–2.0%.
  • E · Commodity: 0.1%–0.5%.

"Brand" here means spend that compounds: identity, narrative, owned media, the writing under the writer's name, the events you host. Not demand-gen, not paid acquisition.

The lower bound of every range assumes a brand already established. Rebuilding from zero? Push to the upper bound for eighteen months and don't budge.

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