Father-Daughter Duo Re-define Print Marketing In The Digital Age

Hoffman Estates, IL • July 23, 2018 – Plum Grove Inc., a growing printing and marketing company based in Hoffman Estates, IL, recently welcomed consumer products industry veteran Kara Lineal into the role of Chief Marketing Officer. She is responsible for overseeing marketing strategy and the digital experience for the Plum Grove brand and client services. She joins her father, Peter Lineal, founder of Plum Grove, as part of the leadership team.

Since working in Plum Grove’s graphic design department in college, Kara Lineal has spent the last 16 years with industry-leading consumer brands that serve global retailers and e-tailers. As a data-driven marketing strategist with a focus on consumer insights, marketing technology, and business intelligence, Lineal has a proven track record developing brand-building marketing campaigns, breaking ground on new e-commerce channels, and delivering award-winning product launches. “From Champion brand sport bags and Jockey brand bedding, to consumer electronics, mobile apps and smart home sensors, my career has spanned a broad range of product development, merchandising and digital marketing,” says Lineal. “Bringing this experience to the traditional B2B printing industry makes Plum Grove uniquely qualified to expand its online presence and digital client services offering. It’s exciting to have such diverse marketing capabilities in our toolbox!”

Kara Lineal has been a part of Plum Grove since the day she was born, which happened to fall on the same day Peter Lineal got the keys to the print shop. While launching his business in 1980, Peter brought his daughter with him to work, making her first play pen out of stacks of printing paper. In its first year, Plum Grove struggled to turn a profit and Peter’s entrepreneurial optimism was declining when three middle-aged ladies walked through the door, waking Peter’s infant daughter, “Kara was screaming, yet immediately became our top salesperson when this non-profit organization, that was seeking a new printer, became enamored with my new baby, and ultimately partnered with our business, becoming our biggest client for the next 17 years,” laughs Peter. Last year, when Kara and her husband announced they were expecting their first daughter, Peter’s first grandchild, Peter approached the subject of joining the family business. Kara remarks, “It was a great time in my career to make a quality-of-life transition and improve my work/life balance. Now my daughter gets to come to work with me – the next generation of the Plum Grove family.”

Under Peter’s leadership, Plum Grove has evolved from a commercial printer to a “one-stop shop” that includes mailing services, promotional products, signs, trade show displays and web-to-print websites. In his active role as founder and sales manager, Peter utilizes his decades of printing, marketing and mailing expertise to serve hundreds of clients nationwide. In his words, “At Plum Grove we want client partnerships, not orders.”

Kara and Peter Lineal are a dynamic duo that bring together decades of traditional, digital and blended “tra-digital” marketing success stories, serving the gamut of startups, local businesses, national chains, franchises, mass retailers, global brands and enterprises. The Plum Grove business evolution has been years in the making, yet with rapid advances in both printing and marketing technology and endless tra-digital possibilities, the best may be yet to come.