R&D/Leverage has elevated its level of expertise with the hiring of Shaun Markey as the company’s Brand Strategist. With his extensive background in the consumer package goods industry, Markey will provide strategic insights and collaborative structural packaging development combined with precision mold manufacturing to Fortune 100 and 500 clients.
R&D/Leverage has elevated its level of expertise with the hiring of Shaun Markey as the company’s Brand Strategist. With his extensive background in the consumer package goods industry, Markey will provide strategic insights and collaborative structural packaging development combined with precision mold manufacturing to Fortune 100 and 500 clients.
“I love our unique value proposition here at R&D/Leverage that allows us to combine all the elements of strategic brand development that our clients require helping drive profitable results,” says Markey. Markey’s 15-year background included directing design at Georgia-Pacific Corporation and inspiring innovation at ConAgra Foods for the company’s snacks business.
“Having a background in strategic brand development from the client’s side, I’ve experienced the challenges of being unable to execute production because the knowledge base wasn’t deep enough to execute the creative solution,” Markey comments. “Because I’ve lived in the consumer products world, I understand the changing dynamics, the organizational side, and the process of how innovative packaging is developed. I understand how it works from start to finish, to deliver a solution that connects emotionally and meets the needs of the consumer.”
Global Marketing Director Robert Schiavone, commented: “Having a brand strategist with Shaun’s background is a key link for us to connect brand owners to our breadth of services, both technical and creative. It’s the ‘technically creative’ aspect of our value proposition, and we are excited to have him on the R&D/Leverage team.”
R&D/Leverage offers unique services above and beyond what typical mold manufacturers offer, including consumer research, structural brand development, and design strategies in addition to both virtual and physical prototyping, molds designed and built for optimum volume-production manufacturing for injection molding, tooling for PET and injection blow molding.
“I find R&D/Leverage’s capabilities to be unique to both the mold manufacturing side and the structural branding side,” said Markey. “R&D/Leverage is not just a job shop and it’s not the typical branding agency. Having worked with external branding agencies, I’ve found that they offer a structural design component to their services but it only went so far – not as far as needed to go to ensure the technical piece of the packaging can be produced seamlessly.”
“Part of the value R&D/Leverage brings to its clients is innovative structure (packaging) design,” Markey adds. “With the expertise of R&D/Leverage we can collaborate directly with our clients and other business partners to bring added value and positively impact speed-to-market!”
While branding agencies offer a variety of services, they typically don’t have the depth of technical knowledge and manufacturing expertise that R&D/Leverage has to be able to work collaboratively as packaging concepts are being developed and sketched into prototypes and finally into molds, explains Markey. “R&D/Leverage fills that void in the whole branding development process!”
Todd Riley, R&D/Leverage’s CEO, commented on Markey’s hiring: “We are glad to have Shaun onboard and part of the R&D/Leverage team. He brings a wealth of industry knowledge, especially in Brand Strategy and Strategic Brand Innovation. Shaun is an instant asset to the R&D/Leverage organization.”
Photo: R&D/Leverage
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