Some leading brewers have found success by sprouting new branches on their brands’ families trees, and in some cases, those branches have outgrown elder sibling brands.
To discuss how their companies have found success with offshoots, Constellation Brands’ Modelo brand family VP Greg Gallagher, Firestone Walker CMO Dustin Hinz and Sierra Nevada brand director Kyle Ingram took the stage at the Brewbound Live business conference in Santa Monica, California.
For the Modelo brand family, incremental growth has come from its Modelo Chelada line extension, which launched nearly 10 years ago and now includes several fruit-forward offerings in addition to its original with the traditional tomato base.
“Modelo Especial was approaching about 50 million cases at the time, and was on an incredible run of double-digit growth,” Gallagher said. “We were looking for ways to continue to drive growth across our portfolio.”
After seeing similar chelada-style products in the market, the company knew it had the right to develop its own version.
“Modelo being about as authentic a Mexican brand as there can be, we really felt like we could come into that segment with a strong brand that brought really strong authentically Mexican credentials, deliver a really high quality product in a new segment that was valuable and at the same time, strengthened back to our master brand,” Gallagher said.
Year-to-date through November 27, Modelo Chelada Especial has increased dollar sales +12.6% and volume +7.5% at multi outlet off-premise retailers, according to market research firm IRI. Modelo Chelada Limon Y Sal, which the company launched in its own 12-packs earlier this year, has nearly doubled both dollar sales (+98.3%) and case volume (+97.3%), IRI reported.
Firestone Walker has found success beyond its core brand with 805 blonde ale, the brewery’s best-selling offering at multi outlet off-premise retailers tracked by IRI. Despite not having nationwide distribution, 805 is the No. 12 best selling craft brand.
Since its 2012 launch, 805 has always maintained a brand identity that is distinct from the Firestone Walker portfolio. The company launched a sister brand, Mexican-inspired lager 805 Cerveza, and while both 805s look and feel similar, they target different consumers.
“If you’re creating an incremental product, the idea is incremental customers,” Hinz said. “The last thing that we want to do is trade a Cerveza drinker into an 805 drinker.
“Now, we do a lot of homework on our customer. We know that there are some 805 drinkers that are looking for that kind of style,” he continued. “Ultimately, if we can win more share of fridge with an existing customer by giving them more offerings then, awesome. But at the end of the day, the idea is more drinkers, more flavor profiles and incremental growth.”
Since its 2018 launch, Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing has eclipsed flagship Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to become the No. 3 selling craft brand at IRI-tracked off-premise retailers. Line extensions such as Big Little Thing Imperial IPA have also proven successful. However, Hazy Little Thing’s voyage didn’t start with smooth sailing, Ingram said.
“At the time when we were developing that brand and introducing it even just internally, it was highly divisive,” he said. “It was not popular with a lot of folks inside our walls, because they felt like we were maybe chasing a fad or it wasn’t congruent with the traditional Sierra Nevada mold.
“It was highly disruptive, both internally and externally,” he continued. “So, we felt like that was all the more reason to give it its own identity and pull it apart from what people have come to expect from Sierra Nevada. And I think that a large part of its success, frankly, is that it did stand out, it did stand alone.”
Watch the panelists’ conversation above to learn more about the Little Things family, Firestone Walker’s Cali Squeeze brand, how to introduce the rest of the portfolio to the new drinkers that line extensions bring in, and more.