Breaking Brand: Gumballhead & Oberon's New Variety Packs

Brand extensions are nothing new in Craft Beer, especially with IPAs. At Revolution Brewing where I work, Galaxy-Hero was spun off of Anti-Hero back in 2013, followed by over thirty more Hero IPAs over the years. Heading into 2023 though, extending brands began to feel like the only move left in the playbook when it came to core, year-round portfolios (present company included). Whether it was an imperial, session, or another new take on IPA, brand extensions were the path of least 𝚛̶𝚎̶𝚜̶𝚒̶𝚜̶𝚝̶𝚊̶𝚗̶𝚌̶𝚎̶ consumer education. I began to doubt whether the costs behind building a successful new beer brand from scratch could still pay dividends in craft beer’s current, overcrowded climate. To kick-off 2024, moves from two Midwestern stalwarts outside of the IPA are reinforcing this theory.

Last year, Bell’s Brewery took their iconic Oberon American Wheat Ale and turned their seasonal SKU into year-round Oberon by simply rotating the classic in the Spring/Summer with a Winter version called Oberon Eclipse. Taking one of their most popular brands and creating an extension to hold over fans and hold the shelf spot in the Winter made a lot of sense. Keeping it the same style of beer, just modified to a Citrus Wheat, kept things pretty tight and logical. They have toyed with flavors within the Oberon name and base recipe including Citrus, Cherry, and Mango Habanero before. Earlier this year however, an announcement caught my eye that Bell’s was releasing a new variety pack called Oberon Sunshine Shandy Pack, departing from the Wheat Ale style, but keeping the Oberon name.

Similar to how their parent company New Belgium is fueled by two primary brands: Voodoo Ranger and Fat Tire, Bell’s has been building wider foundations around the “Hearted” IPAs while continuing to make investments in the Oberon half of its portfolio. Despite not being wheat beers, the name recognition of Oberon still won out when it came to the brand. When you play at the high stakes level that Bell’s is at, likely taking aim at Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, it’s hard to blame them.

I’d guarantee that the Oberon-branded shandy would outsell any other new shandy brand they could possible come up with, no matter how great the branding. Oberon just has too much irreplaceable equity built up to not squeeze more juice out of it, versus trying to start at square one. This strategy isn’t what gets me out of bed in the morning if I’m being honest, but it makes a whole lot of sense. When Fat Tire changed from Amber to Golden, it created quite the uproar by keeping it’s name yet making a pretty significant style change. I don’t expect many complaints to come from Oberon cynics (if there are any) about the name branching into shandy, especially with the OG favorite remaining in wider availability than ever.

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A few hours south of Bell’s in Munster, IN, 3 Floyds may have been facing a similar set of factors having already extended their cult favorite Zombie Dust into a stronger version last year called Zombie Ice. They hadn’t really tinkered with the other half of their own long time 1-2 punch, Gumballhead, which has transcended craft beer here in the Midwest. In other words, people who despise “craft beer” still know and love Gumballhead, making it quite the formidable force. Gumball has always referred to itself as an American Wheat Pale Ale over its nearly 30 year existence, but a few weeks ago Floyds began teasing out some extensions:

3floydsbrewing

A post shared by @3floydsbrewing

A new Gumball Head Variety Pack was announced including:

• Gumballhead Hazy IPA - 6.5% ABV

• Gumballhead Double IPA - 8.5% ABV

• Gumballhead Blood Orange and Lemon Pale Ale - 4.8% ABV

• Gumballhead Wheat Pale Ale - 5.6% ABV

I was admittedly puzzled when I first saw the announcement with the transformation of my long time favorite in Gumballhead, most notably into a Hazy IPA and Double IPA. The more I thought about everything laid out above re: Oberon, I also get it. This will almost certainly outperform a variety pack featuring 3x Gumballhead, plus three less familiar 3 Floyds brands without the branding commonality. The Gumballhead name is so established and its fans get a little variation and dare I say functionality, in that there’s 4 very different ABVs spanning 4.8% to 8.5%. The brand has always threaded the needle between being an American Wheat and an American Pale Ale, so there’s certainly a bridge toward extending the Pale Ale aspect into a Double and a Hazy IPA.

So what do you think, is it feasible for an established brewery known primarily for a couple best sellers to create a break out new hit in 2024, with staying power?

I think it still is, but it badly needs to take aim at white space and fill a void. We’re having some solid success with our new Cold Time premium lager out of the gate, though of course its still early. Besides tasting great and the packaging being a hit, this new brand for 2024 is finding a unique position with the combination of being a local ✔️ lager, yet competitively priced ✔️ in volume driven 12-packs ✔️ in 12oz cans ✔️ with a wider appealing ABV below 5% ✔️. In our market, not many beers check all of those important boxes. But to come out with a new IPA or a new wheat beer with big aspirations and no tie-in to the rest of the portfolio right now, I’d be less optimistic.

The industry sits currently at a state of maturity, and in the absence of disruptive new styles and innovation, it’s best to not overwhelm the consumer, distributors, and retailers with as many new brands that aren’t solving a need in the market. That doesn’t mean I believe it’s a great long term idea to take a brand like Anti-Hero and make an Anti-Hero American Wheat. I don’t love that idea at all, but you could make an argument that it would work better than most things these days, at least in the short/medium term 🤔

It’s a fascinating exercise to think through and consider what smaller breweries without the multi-decade history of Bell’s & 3 Floyds can gleam from their strategies. For me, it demonstrates the value of putting more eggs into the basket of my top two or so year-round brands because of the dividends that strategy can pay when you’re an older brewery with a larger base of more longtime, more passive consumers. “New new new” can absolutely work and become what the brewery is known for, but that model doesn’t scale well at a certain point. Set yourself up so that the strength of a few key brands could eventually serve as a bridge to new avenues.