Is Way to Fan’s Heart Through the Stomach? : Angels Are Putting On the Dogs

The California Angels are finally on a roll.

They’re winning games, too, but this roll is brown on the outside, white on the inside and has mustard smeared down the middle.

“Angels Dogs,” hot dogs wrapped in a package that promises “all the flavor of an Angels baseball game,” had their opening day at a number of Southland supermarkets just a few weeks ago.

You might find them near the Angels Ice Cream Sandwiches or--if the spirits move you--around the corner from the Angels Commemorative Wine.

All three products have the California Angels logo on the label and are produced by California companies. Angels fans who have hungered for big things from the team can now sit down to a veritable meal of Angel food--although Angel food cake isn’t on the menu--without so much as setting foot in the Big A.

The outside sale of these eatables is a marketing move by the team’s owners to capitalize on the Angels’ name. The official excuse for the campaign is that 1985 marks the team’s 25th anniversary. Angels officials hope the products will drum up interest and boost attendance after a season in which the team played .500 ball and failed to make the divisional playoffs.

But Angels executives also hope to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from licensing fees and profits from sales of the hot dogs, wines and ice cream sandwiches, said John W. Hays, the Angels’ marketing vice president. “We’re always looking for ways to extend our reach into the marketplace,” said Hays.

Considering the Angels’ current division-leading record, the idea could be a winner, experts say.

“If you can have Calvin Klein jeans, maybe you can have Angels wine,” said Joseph Leindecker, vice president and creative director at Jansen Associates, a large regional public relations firm based in Santa Ana.

Marshall Klein, director of community relations for the Los Angeles Rams, said professional sports teams are always looking for exposure, and that he liked the Angels’ idea. “We’re not on the meat counter yet, but maybe some day we will be,” he said.

Angels Dogs, which cost $1.25 each at the stadium, will be packed by Ol’ Virginia Packing Inc. of Los Angeles and sold at supermarkets for about $1.69 for a package of 10--sans buns and condiments. Carnation Dairies of Los Angeles is making the ice cream sandwiches, which will be sold primarily at convenience stores for 39 cents each. And Martin Brothers Winery of Paso Robles is bottling Angels commemorative wine, which will be sold at liquor stores for as low as $7.50 and at restaurants for up to $13.50. The limited edition will consist of 3,000 bottles of Zinfandel and 3,000 bottles of Chardonnay.

Martin Brothers began wholesaling the wine a few weeks ago and it appears to be catching on as the Angels remain in first place. At The Catch, an appropriately named restaurant across the street from the Big A, a 10-ounce glass of Angels wine sells for $4.50. Manager Gary Parkinson initially bought 10 cases and plans to promote the wine heavily. “A lot will depend on how well the team does,” he said. The Disneyland Hotel also has bought a number of cases of the Halo vintage and team owner Gene Autry’s Palm Desert hotel already is chalking up impressive sales of the wine.

Carnation executives say they are expecting “six figure” sales of the Angels ice cream bars alone. The treats will be available at AM/PM Mini Markets later this week and eventually will be sold to all of Carnation’s local food service accounts, said Ed Ramelow, Carnation’s executive account manager.

And Joel Babic, vice president of marketing at Ol’ Virginia, says that sales of Angels Dogs could exceed $1 million this year. That translates into about one hot dog for every resident of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

After just two weeks, Angels Dog sales are red hot at Albertson’s on North State College Boulevard in Anaheim, said Ken Fear, the store’s director. The store has sold nearly 200 packages, a tidy sum, he said, for a new product that has not been promoted. “Of course, I have a good location,” he said. “I’m just a few miles from the stadium.”

Other Teams in the Act

The Angels are not the first baseball team to try to market their name on a food product label. The Milwaukee Brewers licensed their name to a frozen pizza maker a few years ago and the Toronto Blue Jays have their name on a number of generic products sold by a supermarket chain in Toronto. The Brewers’ pizza and the Blue Jays’ generics, however, have seen only marginal success because consumers generally are leery of the quality of such products, marketing experts say.

Also, some products simply are incompatible with sports labels. A team “wouldn’t want to put their name on a can of lard,” quipped the Rams’ Klein.

If sales prove successful, the Angels hope to extend the label to other ballpark-related food items such as soda pop and ice cream bars, Hays said. The team ruled out less profitable products such as popcorn, peanuts and pretzels.

But if the Angels flop and sales fizzle, Jansen Associates’ Leindecker says, the food products, especially Angels wine, could eventually go the route of Billy Beer. The beer, named after President Carter’s brother, “sold like crazy for a few weeks,” Leindecker said. “But the only place you see the cans now is at flea markets.”