I work differently than a typical agency, and the biggest difference is this: I’ll tell you the blunt truth. If your English marketing doesn’t quite resonate, if your positioning sounds like everyone else’s, if a strategy simply won’t work, you’ll hear it from me. Most agencies will tell you what you want to hear to keep you as a client. But in my opinion, that’s just not how you build something that’s meant to last.
I’m not chasing awards, and I won’t spend your budget helping me win one. I won’t push you toward trendy technology or gimmicks because they’re fun to play with. I care whether the work actually moves your business, not whether it looks impressive in a case study.
I can work alongside your existing team or from the outside to give you a fresh perspective. Either way, my focus is you and your business. Nothing else.
I’m based in Milan, backed by a team of experienced professionals on two continents. Being here matters more than it sounds. I live in the market my clients are selling from, so I understand the culture, the traditions, and the economic realities behind their products. Not from research, not from a spreadsheet, but from actually being here.
I can see why a product already works in Europe, and how it should be communicated for success abroad. An overseas agency, or an importer’s in-house team, is usually guessing at least some of that. I don’t need to because I’m already here.
I’m Nash Huntley, a senior brand strategist and marketing expert with over 20 years of experience inside the North American retail industry. I was head of marketing for a Canadian supermarket chain in 2020, when I decided to give up my corporate career and start a new life in Italy. But before that, I worked on the buying side, sourcing gourmet food products from around the world and that’s how I ended up on the other side of the table from Italian food exporters. I saw how they pitched, positioned, and sold into our market.
But I also saw their frustration. Because the same thing kept happening again and again. Great products that just didn’t resonate. Not with the corporate buyers and not with consumers. It wasn’t because they weren’t good enough, but because their marketing didn’t speak to how North Americans actually think and buy. So I moved to Italy to help fix it.
Today I help European exporters market their products in native English, with the same instinct that the most successful North American brands are built on. I work independently, supported by a team of experienced marketing professionals on two continents.
A product that flies off the shelf at home often sits untouched in North America. Same product, same quality, same price. The exporter is left wondering what went wrong.
Usually the answer is simple: North American consumers don’t think, shop, or decide the way your home market does.
This is the side of the business I know best. What catches their attention and what they ignore, what builds trust and what kills it, why they reach for one product over the near-identical one beside it. I help you shape your brand and message around how these consumers actually make decisions, not how you assume they should.
Get this right and everything else gets easier, because you’re finally selling to the customer you actually have, not the one you imagined.
Getting your product onto a North American shelf is one thing. Understanding how that market actually works once it’s there is another, and it’s where a lot of European brands get caught off guard.
I spent over 20 years inside North American grocery retail, so I know it from the inside: how buyers decide what to stock, how shoppers actually behave in the aisle, what the packaging and labeling rules really demand, and the dozens of small realities that you don’t know about until you’re already committed. That’s knowledge you usually only get by making expensive mistakes first.
I help you skip the mistakes and get it right the first time, so your product shows up ready for the market.
Translation can turn your language into English but copywriting is what makes those English words actually sell. Hiring a translator to do a copywriter’s work is a big mistake, and frankly, it’s why a lot of good products struggle when the reach a new market.
Here’s what I bring that a translator or someone from your local marketing agency can’t: I know what a brand needs to say but I also know what an English-speaking consumer is listening for, because I’ve lived in both of those worlds. Not just correct English, but English that makes someone choose you.
Websites, packaging, campaigns, brand materials. If your English doesn’t sound like it belongs, your product won’t either.
Design shows people who you are, but words explain it to them. This is where your brand finds its voice: what it stands for, what makes it different, and how it comes across to everyone who encounters it.
And that’s more people than most brands account for. It’s not just the consumer reading your label. It’s also the corporate buyer deciding whether you’re worth a place on the shelf, the distributor sizing you up, the person who hears about you first and chooses whether to give you a chance. Each one needs to get the right message. I make sure your brand says the same clear, convincing thing to all of them, so people are already saying yes before your product reaches the shelf.
Design is more than how something looks. It’s one of the most powerful tools that you have for showing people who you are. In a market that’s crowded with choices, it’s often what makes someone stop and pay attention to your message.
Good design isn’t decoration. There’s real psychology behind why one package gets picked up and the one beside it gets ignored, why certain colors build trust, why some layouts pull you in and others get skipped over. I’ve spent years learning and practicing what actually works, and I use it to build brand materials that connect with the people you’re trying to reach, from logos to packaging to everything with your name on it.
Design that sells, not just decorates.
Your brand isn’t just your company logo or name. It’s what people think and feel when they hear it. Quite literally, the sum of how you look, sound, and act. And it lives inside your customer’s head, not on your corporate letterhead.
Strong brands aren’t just lucky. They’re built on a strategy that carefully curates what people see, hear, and experience.
I start by locating the gap between where your brand is now and where it should be. Then we close it, with a strategy that’s true to who you are and built to resonate with a market that doesn’t already know you.
A brand strategy doesn’t guarantee growth. But you absolutely can’t grow without one.