European market entry is not a campaign. It is a business.

European Market Entry for the Americas Start the Conversation

Europe is not a market. It is many — Germany, France and Italy alone are three trade cultures, each with its own rules, its own gatekeepers, its own idea of trust.

A marketing plan will not open those doors. What opens them is a European operator.

Americas · Europe

Clients on one side. Execution on the other.

Brands come to us from the Americas. The work happens in Europe. Everything between the two is the business.

Client markets

The Americas

United States · Canada · Brazil · Argentina · Uruguay · Paraguay

Premium brands with a proven business at home and Europe on the plan.

Melein-Melein

The European platform

Strategy · Distribution · Market presence · Growth

Two founders, twenty years in these markets, one point of contact throughout.

Execution markets

Germany · France · Italy

Three core markets. One European platform.

We start where our relationships and execution are strongest, and build outward from there.

An Americas base in Miami is in development. The European execution is already in place.

Selected Experience

Experience built brand by brand.

Selected experience of our founders and teams.

Coffee & Tea

Chocolate & Confectionery

Fine Food

Fragrance & Heritage

Culture & Publishing

Why Melein-Melein

One partner. Three markets. One conversation.

Twenty years

Two decades building international premium brands inside European markets — not advising on them from outside.

Three core markets

Germany, France and Italy, in three languages, under one roof. One European platform, built to extend.

Full scope

Strategy, distribution, market presence and long-term growth. Communication is one instrument, not the product.

One contact

A single point of contact from the Americas across all of Europe. Founder-led, start to finish.

Founders

Two founders. Not a team of account managers.

Sascha Jean-Michel Melein

Founder — European Market Entry

Founded Classic Communication in Saint-Tropez in 2007 and has spent the twenty years since opening European markets for premium houses — the strategy, the distribution and the relationships behind both.

  • Strategy
  • Positioning
  • Distribution
  • Business Development
  • Media
LinkedIn ↗

Bianka Doreen Melein

Founder — Client Strategy

Twenty years guiding premium clients through European markets — the execution as much as the plan, and the standard everything is held to once the work begins.

  • Client Leadership
  • Project Management
  • Communication
  • Execution
How It Actually Works

Market entry happens between people. Around tables, at tastings, in the buyer's office — rarely in a deck.

Our Approach

No campaigns. No hand-offs. One team, in the market, for the long term.

See How We Work
What We Do

Four areas of competence.

Not a service list. A single, connected practice for building a business in Europe — in which communication is one instrument, not the product.

01

Strategy

  • Market Selection
  • Positioning
  • Go-to-Market
  • Pricing
02

Business Development & Distribution

  • Importers & Distributors
  • Retail & Horeca
  • Introductions
  • Negotiation Support
03

Market Presence

  • Communications & PR
  • Buyer & Editor Relations
  • Tastings & Trade Presence
  • Launches & Activations
04

Long-Term Growth

  • Partner Management
  • Multi-Market Expansion
  • Board & Founder Advisory
  • Strategic Advisory
Sectors

Where we have built.

Track Record

How the work looks.

How a market was opened. How a partner was chosen. What it took to hold.

Château Margüi · Wine & Hospitality · France

An official wine partnership with the Cannes Film Festival.

Challenge
A private Provençal estate producing exceptional rosé, known inside French wine circles and almost nowhere else. No standing in the international premium trade, and no hospitality position to speak of.
What we did
International positioning for the wine and the property together. Trade and buyer introductions run alongside editorial visits to the estate, curated dinners for international journalists, and the development and management of the estate's participation as official wine partner of the Cannes Film Festival — content production, trade and press coordination, and an exclusive festival event.
Impact
Sustained coverage in Condé Nast Traveller, the Financial Times, FAZ, Tatler and Falstaff, and an established international reputation as a destination where wine, landscape and culture meet.
Rizzoli New York · Culture & Publishing · United States

An American publishing house, introduced to the French cultural trade.

Challenge
Rizzoli New York is a byword for the beautiful book in the United States. In France — where the relationship between culture, publishing and the press is unlike anywhere else — that authority does not transfer by itself.
What we did
A campaign built around the cultural and lifestyle editors best placed to give key titles the attention they deserved, positioning Rizzoli at the intersection of art, fashion and luxury rather than as an imported catalogue. Trade and press coordination included a title produced in partnership with Dior.
Impact
Editorial standing with the French cultural press, and a working method for a house whose credibility at home had to be rebuilt, market-side, in France.
Château d'Estoublon · Wine, Olive Oil & Hospitality · France

A Provençal estate brought to the German-speaking trade.

Challenge
Two collections — wine and olive oil — from a classified historic estate, with a substantial growth opportunity in the German-speaking markets and no distribution structure to carry it.
What we did
We opened and structured the German trade: identifying and qualifying premium importers and fine food retailers, negotiating the partnerships, then holding them. Curated evenings for category editors in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg ran alongside, with estate visits so the same writers saw the harvest and the mill for themselves.
Impact
A durable retail and hospitality presence across three countries, held over more than five years of continuous work.
FAQ

Questions we hear early.

Who is Melein-Melein for?

Premium and luxury brands with a proven business at home that are ready to build a genuine commercial presence in Europe — not a single campaign or a one-off listing. Increasingly, that means companies in the United States, Canada, Brazil and the Mercosur countries.

Which markets do you actually open?

Germany, France and Italy, under one point of contact. Three core markets, one European platform. Each is handled by people who work in that language and understand its trade culture — not one approach translated three times. We extend from there when a brand is ready.

Is this a communications agency?

No. Communications is one instrument inside a market entry, alongside strategy, distribution and long-term commercial development. If what you need is press coverage alone, there are agencies that do that well.

How does an engagement begin?

With a conversation about your brand, your category and the market you have in mind. From there we scope a market entry approach specific to your positioning and your timeline — no templates, no generic proposals.

Do you know the Brazilian market?

We know the European one. We are building a dedicated Brazil and Latin America practice from Miami, with Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking colleagues, and we would rather say that plainly than claim an expertise that belongs to Brazilians. What we bring is the other side of the trade.

Which sectors do you work in?

Fine food, wine and beverages, hospitality, premium consumer goods and lifestyle, with selected luxury and design work — sectors where premium positioning, trade relationships and price architecture decide who succeeds.

How long does market entry take?

It depends on the category, the price tier and how established the brand already is elsewhere. We give a realistic timeline once we understand your business, not before.

Is this a one-off project or an ongoing partnership?

We are built for the long term. Most of our relationships continue for years, because building genuine presence in Europe does not end at the first listing.

Contact

Let's talk about Europe.

One conversation. One point of contact. No forms, no funnels.

Sascha Melein on LinkedIn ↗

Germany · France · Italy — Americas desk, Miami, in development