PITTSBURGH — Perhaps the H.J. Heinz Co. just needed a good hot dog to serve its new mustard on.

The Pittsburgh ketchup maker Thursday morning announced it’s launching a “new, better-tasting yellow mustard than it’s ever offered before at retailers nationwide.”

Heinz already dominates the North American ketchup market, so the strategy seems to be to hitch its mustard’s wagon to the company’s star product and pick up new sales.

The launch, which is being backed by an advertising campaign, was forecast last month when a planned merger of Heinz and Kraft Foods Group, based in Northfield, Illinois, was announced.

Heinz CEO Bernardo Hees, who is slated to become CEO of the new Kraft Heinz Co. if the merger goes through as expected, told analysts in a conference call then that the innovation pipeline for Heinz already included things like mustard as a line extension.

Heinz’s announcement said it had developed a new yellow mustard recipe for the new retail push.

“We know that people don’t really think about yellow mustard, so we needed to inspire them with a bold creative idea to shake things up a bit,” said Jessica Ryan, associate director of marketing for Heinz Brands at Heinz North America, in Thursday morning’s announcement.