KLN Family Brands: Client Story

From Sales-Driven Hustle to Strategic Brand Building: How KLN Family Brands Partnered with Authentic to Evolve Marketing as a Growth Engine

“[Our Authentic CMO] has been incredible — he’s listening, he’s asking the right questions, and most importantly, he’s building the internal marketing credibility needed to lead.”

Chase Rasmussen, President, KLN Family Brands

KLN Family Brands At a Glance

  • Company size: 900 employees
  • Industry: Retail / Commerce, Consumer Goods & Services, Manufacturing / Distribution
  • Business model: Business-to-Consumer, Privately Held, Family Owned
  • Headquarters: Perham, Minnesota
  • Authentic Growth® Drivers:
    • Adapt to Changing Market Dynamics
    • Sharpen Market Focus and Value Proposition
    • Build a Strong Marketing Team (Right People in the Right Seats)

The Challenge

KLN Family Brands, a multigenerational, family-owned business, has seen impressive growth over several decades, thanks to a deeply rooted sales-first culture. With flagship brands like Wiley Wallaby™ and NutriSource™, their growth has been fueled by strong distributor relationships, retail execution, and relentless hustle.

But as the company reached a critical inflection point – aiming to grow Wiley Wallaby into a $100M brand – the leadership team realized that traditional sales efforts alone wouldn’t get them there. They needed to modernize their approach, especially when it came to consumer marketing. With limited internal marketing infrastructure and inexperience deploying budgets toward brand and demand programs, KLN was seeking a trusted advisor who could help lead them into this new chapter.

A special hometown connection…

Authentic Founder & CEO Jennifer Zick’s hometown is Perham, Minnesota, where KLN is headquartered. KLN team members had been following the story of Authentic’s growth under Jennifer’s leadership – and took notice of Authentic’s proven methodology and CMO credentials. With the trust of the hometown connection, KLN engaged Authentic to bring the right-fit CMO to their table.

The Solution

Authentic embedded a Fractional CMO into KLN’s business to guide the organization’s marketing evolution — starting with strategic alignment and building a foundation for scale. Here’s how the engagement unfolded:

  • Strategic marketing mindset shift: KLN’s leadership needed to shift from viewing marketing as an “expense” to embracing it as a revenue driver. Authentic’s CMO helped facilitate this cultural transformation, introducing planning rhythms, strategic budgeting, and ROI-focused thinking.
  • Establish Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) + buyer personas: Authentic’s CMO initiated a market research project, which provided quantitative and qualitative insight to solidify the organization’s ICP and buyer personas.
  • Building a modern marketing foundation: A full assessment was done of KLN’s marketing organization structure, from which the CMO built a plan to achieve growth with stability. In the early stages of the engagement, the CMO:
    • Defined marketing goals tied to business outcomes,
    • Built trust with internal sales teams and executive leadership,
    • Begun evolving KPIs and reporting frameworks to align sales and marketing.
  • Aligning on the right work, right now: Rather than immediately launching splashy campaigns, Authentic’s CMO focused on laying a solid foundation: internal alignment, roles clarity, and initial strategic moves that delivered quick wins.
  • Build metrics scorecard aligned to ICPs: Market research identified brand awareness as a key area of improvement, so the CMO re-aligned metrics to focus on growth in this area. 
  • Adjust and design marketing plans tailored to buyer personas: Using Authentic Growth® Methodology, a complete marketing plan was built to adjust existing marketing programs to align to ICPs. New plans were laid to strategically align marketing channels and programs, including social media, influencers, content, television advertising, product packaging, and more.

The Results

Though the partnership is still in its earlier stages, results are already emerging:

  • Cultural alignment around marketing: Sales and executive teams are embracing the role of brand marketing in long-term growth.
  • Internal credibility and clarity: With an experienced CMO in the seat, marketing is no longer operating in the dark. Goals, metrics, and expectations are clearly defined.
  • Strategic groundwork for brand expansion: With Wiley Wallaby on track for $60–65M in revenue, the team is laying the marketing foundation to reach $100M and beyond.

“We know where we want to go. Authentic is helping us chart a strategic path to get there — and lead with confidence.”

Chase Rasmussen, President, KLN Family Brands

Author

  • Authentic® is a fractional CMO and marketing transformation firm, built to help growing businesses Overcome Random Acts of Marketing® and confidently take the next right step toward healthy growth.

    Our unique approach combines Marketers + Methodology + Mindshare to help growing businesses increase maturity, growth, and transferrable value.

    We are Authentic®
    Tested. Trusted. True Executives.