Frank’s RedHot cayenne pepper sauce, that is, which claims to be the “secret” ingredient in a sauce whipped up with that initial batch of wings at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY, in 1964. (Curiously, there’s no mention of Frank’s on the Anchor Bar website, perhaps

Despite its name, Frank’s RedHot is not particularly fiery. On the Scottsville scale that measures the heat of a chili pepper, Frank’s RedHot Original scores 450, while Frank’s XTRA Hot barely tops 2,000—compared to the 3,050 of McIlhenny Company’s red Tabasco sauce. This positions Frank’s as a condiment to be splashed liberally (or with complete abandon) rather than as an ingredient dashed in small doses; the company’s online presence extols the sauce’s flavor as much as its heat.

Offering hundreds of Frank’s-infused recipes, the RedHot website promotes the hot sauce to be as much of a fridge-door necessity as ketchup and mustard. (Frank’s is owned by French’s, the manufacturer of a slew of condiments.) The well-organized Recipes section can be browsed by product, recipe type (from dips to desserts), cooking method, cuisine or occasion, guaranteeing repeat site visits.

But beyond the recipes and a cluttered homepage, the site is as bland as a bell pepper. One can view the company’s clever TV ads, and off-site links direct the viewer to coupons and the French’s food service site, where you can order Frank’s by the gallon.

Digging deeper into the product line yields confusion. The Frank’s site mentions four RedHot products: Original, XTRA Hot, Buffalo Wing and Chile ’n Lime. Yet on the French’s food service site, one spots the Buffalo Sandwich and Gold Fever Zing sauces. And the Canadian Frank’s site, which looks nothing like the American version, omits those two varieties but promotes a Caesar Spicer sauce. This might be a regional issue (and the Buffalo Sandwich and Gold Fever Zing sauces may be available only in food-service quantities), but the sites don’t say.

Compare this with the more consistent Tabsaco site, which has a drop-down menu that offers virtually all of the English-language content in any of seven other languages. Tabasco has the obligatory recipe section but also hosts fun features like customizable e-postcards and a “country store” that offers personalized bottles of sauce. Both sauce sites use minimal audio, but while Tabasco’s splash screen employs the sound of a crackling fire as a bottle of its chipotle sauce rotates on a spit, Frank’s merely tacks on an incongruous coin-jingling rattle as you mouse over the image of each product.

Perhaps that’s the sound of lost revenue due to a website that doesn’t strongly enough promote the brand.