It's important to understand that corporations regularly do things stupidly.

Potential reasons why a branding exercise might cost more than you'd think:

• It's being driven by someone who has no idea what they want, they just don't like the status quo.
• It's being driven by someone who got approval for a large design budget and needs to spend it lest they not get access to a similar budget number for the following year.
• It's being driven by a consultant, who has sold some executive on the idea that a logo change is just what's needed to lift the company's sagging stock price.

Then you factor in things like focus groups and awareness campaigns and building renovations required to change signs and other, similar foolishness.