Top dog: Rivalry between Kraft, Sara Lee heats up

The latest round in the long-running feud comes as Kraft Foods Inc.'s Oscar Mayer brand gives its signature hot dog a makeover aimed at stealing momentum from Sara Lee Corp.'s Ball Park Franks.

Kraft hopes its reformulation--its first in 20 years for the all-beef hot dog--and a massive promotional campaign attract new customers and their palates with a zestier, meatier recipe.

"(Consumers are) continuing to look for higher flavors, beefier, juicier hot dogs and we saw that as an opportunity to grow that portion of our business," said Sean Marks, senior director of marketing for Oscar Mayer.

Both suburban Chicago food manufacturers claim the designation as the nation's top hot dog brand, based on separate readings of market research and sales data. Experts say the frank fight may become more difficult as the economy sours and hot dog consumption--at least among adults--hits its lowest level since the mid-1980s.

"You can say, at best, long-term, it's flat," said Harry Balzer, a vice president with research firm NPD Group. "(But) it's still a valuable market."

So valuable, in fact, that about 956 million packages of hot dogs were sold at U.S. retailers in the past year, according to data from The Nielsen Co. That's on top of the estimated 30 million hot dogs--often regional brands--that Major League Baseball fans down each season at the nation's ballparks.

And with grocery sales of about $2 billion last year hot dogs are far from being discounted. According to NPD data, 48 percent of American children aged 18 and under will eat at least one hot dog in the next two weeks.

That alone is enough for companies to take notice--particularly Kraft and Sara Lee, which are both in the midst of turnaround plans aimed at reviving stalled sales.

Kraft, the world's second-largest food company, is also spending the summer promoting its line of snack-sized hot dogs that launched in April by sending its new "Mini Weinermobile" on a nationwide marketing tour along side the full-scale model.