Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
Killer Brownie has been selling their products across the country for a long time, but Mayne-Ross said people were having a hard time finding the brownies on the shelves.
“We just wanted to be more accessible,” Mayne-Ross said. “Through this new branding and relaunch it’s a way for people to have access to what will no longer be a best kept secret.”
Killer Brownie has gone through a few rebrands over the last 45 years. The original branding was designed by Mayne-Ross’s dad.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
When she joined the company, they rebranded for the first time. In 2019, they rebranded again “to be a little bit more gourmet looking and it really did help us start to get some momentum and some traction around the product, but we really felt like we needed to go a little more back to our roots and who we were.”
Her grandfather started Dorothy Lane Market in 1948 with the spirit of being a innovator.
“When my father took over Dorothy Lane Market in the 1970s, he carried on that innovative spirit in items all across the store,” Mayne-Ross said. “In the late 1970s and early 1980s, they started making this triple layer brownie with caramel in the middle and it was called the Killer Brownie.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
No one had ever seen something like that in the bakery space.
“At the same time, Dorothy Lane Market started doing boxed lunches, which was also a new concept, not only in Dayton, but just internationally,” Mayne-Ross said. “The dessert in that boxed lunch was the original Killer Brownie, so all of a sudden the Dayton business community started talking about what is this dessert that’s in this lunch and it quickly started to get a local cult following.”
In 1988, her dad trademarked the name.
The brand was taken to the next level when her brother had the idea “to get into the mail order business many, many years ago before most people knew what that was.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
One of the first things they offered was a tin of Killer Brownies that could be shipped across the country.
Over the years, there have been many brownie flavors that have came and gone including some interesting ones such as a brownie with a layer of gorgonzola cream cheese.
“The whole plant smelled like stinky cheese,” Mayne-Ross said. “We did that one time and we never did that again.”
Killer Brownie currently offers 12 flavors including six seasonal. Customer favorites include:
- The Original
- Cookie Dough
- Peanut Butter
- Triple Chocolate
The brand also offers brownies without a layer of caramel including: Brookie, Chocolatier and Kitchen Sink.
“We have a full R&D (research and development) team, so we’re always working on something,” Mayne-Ross said. “I start many of my days tasting and trying brownies for breakfast.”
Mayne-Ross described the brownies as “disruptive” because what they offer “disrupts what people expects from a brownie.”
In 2024, Killer Brownie partnered with Irresistible Foods Group, which includes brands such as King’s Hawaiian and Grillo’s Pickles, to “take the brand and our team and everything that we believed to much bigger heights.”
The Killer Brownies continue to be made in Miamisburg.
“Our vision is that you will be able to go into any major metro market within the next five years and find Killer Brownie easily accessible,” Mayne-Ross said.
For more information, visit killerbrownie.com or the brand’s Facebook (@killerbrownie), Instagram (@killerbrownieofficial) or TikTok (@killerbrownie) pages.
About the Author
