Winning and maintaining shelf space in retail stores is an ongoing battle, as many brands and generic labels compete for both space and prime positions facing in-store shoppers. That’s why food manufacturer Kellogg Company is equipping its field sales reps with Internet-based mobile technology that connects them with product descriptions, sales data and marketing materials to help them win over retail buyers.

Kellogg said yesterday it will deploy among its direct-store-delivery snacks-foods business a cloud-based mobile technology system designed to help it win more shelf space in retail chains and individual stores that carry Kellogg snacks products like Cheez-It crackers, Pringles potato chips and Keebler cookies.

The mobile TouchCG technology, from StayinFront Inc., connects sales reps’ mobile devices with Kellogg software that maintains data and produces reports on product sales by regions and individual store locations; lets reps place customer orders and keeps records of those orders; lets reps display and download marketing materials to share with store buyers; and includes GPS tracking technology that enables Kellogg sales managers to validate visits by reps at each store location.

The TouchCG system “will enhance our in-store DSD efficiency and productivity,” says Eric Gripentrog, vice president, DSD sales and operations at Kellogg. He adds that the StayinFront software is “highly configurable” to accommodate the needs of different products and direct-store-delivery routes.

StayinFront provides its TouchCG technology through a software-as-a-service model, which lets clients access the software through a web browser instead of running it on their own network servers.

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