Contact Kristel & Co.
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Kristel & Co. is a brand and content strategy studio based in Maine. We work with outdoor brands, retailers, and nonprofits, most of them small and many of them still getting on their feet, and we build the foundation that makes everything they publish afterward sound unmistakably like them.
Every engagement starts with the Brand, Voice & Audience Foundation: mission, positioning, audience profiles, voice and tone rules, messaging, and the documented visual system, delivered as a working guide the whole team can use. From there, clients add what they need: a Social Media Strategy Blueprint, AI Presence & Website Copy (so the brand is described accurately by search engines and AI assistants), Content Engine Setup, a Program or Campaign Launch System, or a 90-Day Content Refresh for returning clients.
We do not design logos, build websites, shoot photo or video, or run paid media or PR. When a project needs those, we write the brief and make the introduction, so the designers and developers already on the job get something worth building from.
The studio is led by Kristel Hayes, who has spent twenty years in Maine's outdoor industry: first selling brands like Buff, Deuter, and Bergans of Norway into New England outdoor shops, then fourteen years running a digital marketing practice out of Portland, and most recently heading marketing in-house for a statewide nonprofit whose winter program reaches over 15,000 Maine kids a year.
The goal of the work is independence. A client should finish an engagement able to manage their own communications, on whatever budget and staffing they have, without the brand drifting into the generic sameness that fills most feeds today.
We also partner with agencies as a subcontract strategist, handling the discovery and foundation layer while their team keeps the creative work. Direct engagements typically run six to eight weeks for the Foundation.
kristelandco.com
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Min project size
$5,000+
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Hourly rate
$200 - $300 / hr
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Employees
Freelancer
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Year founded
Founded 2026
Service Lines
- Branding
- 50%
Industries
- Consumer products & services
- 20%
- Hospitality & leisure
- 20%
- Non-profit
- 20%
- Recreation
- 20%
- Retail
- 20%
Clients
- Small Business (<$10M)
- 100%
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Our Story
Kristel & Co. is led by Kristel Hayes, a brand and content strategist with twenty years in Maine's outdoor industry, from selling Buff, Deuter, and Bergans of Norway into New England shops to running marketing for a statewide nonprofit. She does the strategy work herself, start to finish. For design, web, photo, and video, she brings in Maine designers and developers she has worked with for years, so clients get one point of contact and a team sized to the project.
What Sets Us Apart
Foundation first, every time
Most studios start with the deliverable you asked for. We start with the layer under it: positioning, audience, voice, and messaging, written down before anything gets published. This is why the social posts, website copy, and campaigns that follow all sound like the same brand.Twenty years inside the outdoor industry
Kristel sold brands like Buff, Löle, Deuter, and Bergans of Norway to New England outdoor shops before she ever wrote a brand strategy. She knows the buyers, the trade shows, and the difference between a gear brand and a lifestyle brand. You will not spend the first month explaining your category.Built so you can run it without us
Every engagement ends with a guide your team can actually use: voice rules, message frameworks, and content systems plain enough to hand to a new hire. We measure success by how well your brand holds up after we leave, on whatever budget and staffing you have.
Contact Kristel & Co.
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