FRACTIONAL CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Kara Lineal: strategist, marketer, and designer.
Kara began her career as a designer at a luggage and bag manufacturer that served as Walmart’s luggage category captain ($25M annual). She created the packaging template Walmart adopted as its private-label standard for all luggage suppliers.
She led marketing for bedding, consumer electronics, and home goods manufacturers selling through Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and Mattress Firm while building their D2C e-commerce channels.
RESULTS
Consumer electronics manufacturer: E-commerce grew from 5% to more than 30% of revenue as the business grew 50% from $46M to $69M.
Commercial print shop: As President and CMO, she launched digital marketing agency services, reached 800K annual website visitors, 130K email subscribers, and delivered 237 new client relationships.
B2B distributor: Led e-commerce, introduced AI-assisted SEO and content, and increased website traffic 98% while doubling e-commerce revenue.
Today, Kara is a fractional CMO combining brand experience with AI systems she builds.
No cost. No obligation.
THE RIGHT FIT
Where a fractional CMO is a good fit.
Kara works with growing brands that need experienced marketing leadership. Hiring a fractional CMO often comes in at an inflection point for the business:
A specific initiative needs senior ownership. A retail launch, a rebrand, a category entry, or a new market.
Marketing is all execution and no strategy. There are agencies, tools, and activity, but no cohesive plan tying it to revenue.
The business is launching new channels. Moving from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce, or building the digital shelf for a large product catalog.
The company has outgrown founder-led marketing but is not ready to carry a full executive CMO salary yet.
Kara helps marketing teams put automation and responsible AI to practical use.
AI IN MARKETING OPERATIONS
Marketing tools Kara has built with AI and automation.
These are three examples of Kara’s AI automation in marketing operations, from getting your brand endorsed by AI assistants to maintaining product catalogs at scale. Find more ways to use AI in marketing in the AI marketing blog→.
AI Visibility Audit.
TRY A FREE DEMO
A set of shopper questions, run each month across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Mode, to see whether your brand gets named, endorsed and cited.
AI-assisted SEO and content for an 80k SKU catalog.
PROJECT: OCTOBER 2025
At a B2B distributor with a large e-commerce catalog, Kara led AI-assisted SEO and content work that grew organic traffic 98% and doubled e-commerce revenue. The same approach applies to consumer brands with large catalogs on the digital shelf.
A grant research system for a nonprofit board.
PROJECT: AUGUST 2026
Kara built an AI-powered grant research system and a shared calendar that replaced the board's manual research process. The board now spends its time on the work that requires human judgment.
MARKETING AND LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
A winning marketing methodology across industries.
As a marketing executive, Kara has developed growth strategies across consumer, retail, and business services, from smart home devices and home goods to B2B distribution and medical practices.
Consumer electronics
Smart home & connected devices
Housewares & home décor
Weather instruments
Luggage & travel accessories
Bedding & home textiles
Wholesale distribution
Marketing agency & printing services
Healthcare & medical practice marketing
Cannabis
Food manufacturing supplies & ingredients
TOP AND EMERGING BRANDS
Brands Kara helped grow.
From concept to shelf, Kara has developed product lines, packaging, retail and digital merchandising and promotions, and the customer research to back each one.
SALES CHANNELS
Retailers and e-commerce.
Kara has developed retail strategies that help brands win with mass-market buying teams. Her experience covers everything from planogram reviews and packaging to merchandising, product launches, and digital shelf management.
EXPERIENCED CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Portfolio gallery of Kara’s work.
Kara has launched consumer product lines for national retailers, tested store-within-a-store concepts at regional chains, built a beauty-kit e-commerce startup, and managed a wholesale catalog of 80,000+ SKUs. She has also launched three mobile apps, designed Champion bags for Target and HUMMER luggage for JCPenney, led luggage, clock, and cooking-thermometer categories at Walmart, and owned thermometer planograms at Home Depot and Lowe’s.
Her work covers e-commerce, digital experience, digital-shelf merchandising, displays, packaging, product and UX/UI design, customer research, photo and video direction, websites, and the digital transformation (AI, CRMs, PIMs, DAMs) behind them.
SENIOR MARKETING LEADER
Career at a glance.
2023 to 2025
VP of Marketing
A B2B distributor
Traffic up +98%, e-commerce revenue doubled
2018 to 2023
President and CMO
Plum Grove, print marketing agency
Web traffic up 2,108%; C-Suite of the Year Award
2016 to 2018
VP of Marketing
JAB Distributors dba Protect-A-Bed and REM-Fit, bedding
Two e-commerce sites re-platformed; REM-Fit launch with Mattress Firm
2011 to 2016
Senior Director of Marketing
Primex Family of Companies, consumer electronics and home goods
$46M to $69M; 30%+ e-commerce revenue mix
2008 to 2011
Director of Marketing
Digital Innovations, consumer electronics
Online revenue up 67%; category sales up 317%
2005 to 2008
Creative Marketing Manager
Perfect Fit Industries, bedding
$20M and $7M first-year launches
2003 to 2005
Product Designer
InGEAR, luggage and bags
Walmart luggage category captain at $25M annual sales
EXPERIENCED MARKETING EXECUTIVE
Credentials and board service.
EDUCATION
MBA, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
BS, Graphic Design, University of Wisconsin-Madison
CERTIFICATIONS
Certificate in Agentic AI, Johns Hopkins University (2026)
Actionable AI for Marketers, Maven (2025)
UX Certification, Nielsen Norman Group (2023)
Inbound Marketing, HubSpot Academy (2024)
BOARDS
Hannah Center, Board of Directors, Marketing and Public Relations (2025 to present)
American Marketing Association Chicago, Board of Directors, Strategic Relations (2021 to 2023)
RECOGNITION
Excellence in Leadership, Women in Print (2021)
C-Suite of the Year Award (2020)
Consumer Electronics Association Design and Engineering Honors (2010)
Brand Packaging Design Gallery (2010)
BOOK A CALL TO EXPLORE FIT
Ready to accelerate your marketing engine?
No cost. No obligation.