We are a team of seasoned business consultants whose experience combines the best practices of branding for consumer packaged goods companies, integrated marketing and corporate communications.
Yadim Medore (Dan Mishkind)
Principal + Creative Director
Yadim Medore is driven by his passion to reveal an organization’s soul through authentic communications. This drive has been the inspiration behind our creative team’s ability to deliver award-winning packaging, identity, collateral and advertising for over 35 leading natural products brands. Yadim carries the piercing focus and perfectionist eye needed to drive diverse natural brands into the limelight, from Dr. Hauschka to Boiron, Vitasoy to Organic India. Yadim is a master at translating the rational into the emotive. Under his direction, our client work has been honored with a Rebrand 100® Global Award, Webby Awards, American Package Design Awards, American Graphic Design Awards, Beverage Packaging Global Design Awards and American Corporate Identity Awards, and has been published in multiple design compendiums. Prior to founding Pure Branding in 1999, Yadim directed design at Disney Publishing, where his understanding of lifestyle branding increased circulation of FamilyFun Magazine by 400%, and was honored by Adweek's 10 Hottest Magazines list three years running. As Art Director at New Age Journal (now Whole Living), Yadim led the rebrand that laid the foundation for the magazine’s eventual sale to Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Bennington-educated, he has taught at Harvard and is often invited to speak at industry conferences, including Natural Products Expo East and West and All Things Organic.
Kevin Williams
Principal Brand Strategist
Kevin Williams began working with conscious companies when a personal awakening led him to see that big ideas in business could be put to better use. He draws from a rich, diverse range of theory and practice to identify untapped opportunities for driving brand growth. Our clients know Kevin for his big ideas and ability to break barriers. He identifies new channels for growth, shifts consumer paradigms, sees the possibilities of what can be, and makes it come to life for our clients’ businesses. Prior to joining Pure Branding, Kevin served as director of brand identity at Pepperidge Farm, where he managed the enterprise-wide restage that matured the company from a $450M specialty“New England Home Baked” brand to a $1.25B household name in healthier snacking in just four years. At Colgate and Dixie Tableware, Kevin drove brands to the top of their category by implementing new structures to capitalize on the subtleties of organizational and market mechanics. Merging his skills in business process management and branding, Kevin advised top CPG organizations, notably Unilever HPC, Kraft and Colgate-Palmolive. A core organic consumer and thought leader for the natural channel, Kevin has published his work in Natural Products Field Manual, Brand Packaging, and Organic Processing magazines. Kevin has presented at BioFach, IRI’s Brand Identity and Package Design conference, the In-Store Marketing Institute's POP Shows and Natural Products Expo East and West.
Aaron Haesaert
Design Director
Aaron works with Pure Branding’s clients to conceptualize and express the visual aspects of their brand and communication strategies across various channel and selling environments. Aaron has over 15 years of branding and design experience creating-award winning work for clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies in the food, music, consumer electronics, pet food, travel and health industries. Prior to joining Pure Branding, Aaron was Design Director at Catapult Thinking, a Boston-based brand consultancy. His work has been recognized by the Black Book AR100, Communication Arts, Graphis and Print. Aaron holds a BFA from The Art Institute of Boston.
David Poole
Head of Research
David has dedicated his career to understanding what creates high-participation audiences who self-identify with their decision making. In 2008, David established the research division of Pure Branding when he made the decision to shift from servicing corporate interests to realizing his own vision through work with social businesses. To this inception he brought 18 years' experience in communications and research. For Pure Branding’s clients, David applies best practices from the largest digital agencies in New York and London—Digitas and LBi—where he managed programs for global Fortune 500 technology companies including Canon, Nokia, IBM, AT&T and British Telecom. For Canon Europe, David spearheaded the research initiative that would ultimately harmonize Canon’s fragmented digital strategies across 20 countries. With IBM, he led the transformation of the digital content strategy in over 130 countries. And in his years at AT&T, David played an integral role in the corporation’s transformation from a long-distance phone company to a communications company. At Pure Branding, David now oversees consumer, organizational and trade research across multiple industries, pulling back the many layers of consumer behavior to reveal the key insights that a business can build upon: Motivation, beliefs and affiliation.
Mary Kate Murphy
Senior Designer
A veteran of consumer packaged goods design, Mary Kate Murphy creates the piercing communications that help Pure Branding's work pop, on shelf or in marketing. Mary Kate came from Gillette, where she helped launched the Oral-B Pulsar toothbrush, winner of the 2005 In-Store Marketing Institute's Design of the Times Award. As Art Director for Gillette’s Oral-B/Braun division, she helped redesign the Oral-B club channel, and her product illustrations can be seen internationally on Gillette products.
Research Partners
Edward Halteman, PhD, Statistics
Consultant for Survey Design
Ed has been designing and analyzing surveys since 1978. Ed pioneered the use of online surveys, starting in 1998. He consistently applies best practices to ensure questions are worded and structured to yield desired insights in meaningful reports. Ed has taught statistics at Bowdoin College in Maine and is published in the Journal of Statistical Planning.
Jessica Payne, PhD, Qualitative Research
Consultant for Qualitative Research
Jessica has been conducting qualitative studies for more than 20 years to determine how to cultivate consumer loyalty. Her in-depth phone interviews help her advocate for the consumer and accurately characterize their experience within the category.
Ari Shapiro, MBA, Marketing
Consultant for In-store Intercepts
Ari has been conducting in-store intercepts for over 10 years on behalf of leading brands. He possesses a disarming ability to strike up a conversation with complete strangers and an insatiable curiosity about people. This ensures a steady stream of rich interviews at shelf to reveal what packaging works and what does not.
Strategic Partners
Kent Pilakowski
Principal, Ignite Sales and Management Consulting
Kent advises Pure Branding’s clients on sales strategy. As sales and marketing director for General Mills' organic venture, Small Planet Foods, Kent gained valuable experience helping natural brands Muir Glen and Cascadian Farms cross over to mainstream channels, including wholesalers, distributors and corporate chains, at both the regional and national levels. Kent brings his 13 years of award-winning sales management experience for General Mills to his own consultancy, Ignite (www.ignitesalesmanagement.com).
Rakesh M. Amin
Partner, Amin Talati LLC
Rakesh Amin helps Pure Branding’s clients with legal counsel on how to gain product approval, establish pre-/postmarketing requirements, good manufacturing practices, advertising, labeling, health claims, regulatory enforcement and IP (patents & trademarks) protection. As managing attorney at Amin Talati (www.amintalati.com), he practices law related to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and pharmacy. Rakesh taught food and drug law at the DePaul University College of Law and is a member of the Food, Drug and Consumer Product Committee, the Consultants Association for the Natural Products Industry, the National Products Association and Citizens for Health.
