A tried-and-true trend in the food industry is trying out wild flavor combinations and offering them to customers as Limited Time Offers (LTOs).
The tactic keeps the brand in people’s line of sight, and sometimes there’s more to that than just throwing out something that looks delicious.
On the fast food level, LTOs are often seen as monstrous eating challenges inspired by competitive eating culture, like Burger King’s “Suicide Burger.”
Many other brands go for the marketing angle of putting together the wildest thing they can think of. Van Leeuwen Macaroni and Cheese Flavored Ice Cream, Pepsi Flavor PeepsKFC’s Chicken Bouquet and Taco Bell’s giant Cheez-It tostada are just a few of the hundreds that come out each year specifically designed to get people excited about trying these products.
The mainstream beer world has been a bit more experimental in the last decade as well, though barely as far as the aforementioned brands (craft beers are already there, though, and killing it).
Now a well-known brand is betting on the space, and it doesn’t mince words by getting as weird as possible.
Beer and chili, but as one
Downing a cold, crisp beer with a bowl of chili isn’t an especially unusual move, but Hormel (HRL) – Get a free report has gone a step further with a new collaboration with Minneapolis-based Modist Brewing Co.
Called Hormel Chili Cheese Brew, this is exactly what it sounds like: chili cheese-flavored beer, or as the beer’s commercial puts it, “combining chili cheesiness with hoppy beer.”
According to Modist’s website, the beer is a lager brewed with pilsner barley malt and corn flakes, then “seasoned with Hormel’s proprietary chili spice blend and cheddar cheese.”
The limited edition beer is on sale from January 24 and can be purchased online at hormelchilicheesebrew.com or via The Modist online store, or if you’re in the Minneapolis area, you can try it at the brewery on tap. A four-pack sells for $12 and shipping will cost an additional $12.
While many may turn up their noses at the sound of a chili cheese flavored beer, a move like this is just the thing that gets people talking on social media and taking Instagram photos of your weird beer you’re talking about. no one else has heard of. .
It’s also in line with the example Hormel Chairman and CEO Jim Snee mentioned in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Nov. 30, 2022.
“We are leading with a more food-oriented mindset, thinking and acting differently in the way we position our brands with consumers,” Snee said. “This has created new opportunities that were not easily executed in our previous model. And we are working with a newly created brand fuel team to ignite the potential of our products in store and on the shelf.”
