It was once all so easy for the snack-food business. Need to introduce a new product or resuscitate an old one? Buy the shelf display you need and watch your gain in market share offset the cost of the in-store promotion.
The new world: Competition comes from all sorts of digital places. A pretzel that could dominate a snacks display in a brick-and-mortar setting now competes online with any number of exotic munchies that, not long ago, were impossible to find but now are just an online search away.
"At Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, we have built an amazing system that gives us...