Trap-Ease America Questions

1) Martha and the Trap-Ease America investors believe they face a once-in-a- lifetime
opportunity. What information do they need to evaluate this opportunity?
By saying they face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I assume that they are talking about the
potential for profit and growth. However, from this case it doesn’t seem that Martha, the
president of Trap-Ease had done enough research into her market to realistically assess whether
the demand for her product would be there. First she would need to decide what customers want
and need. Do they want or need the safety and extra features that the Trap-Ease delivers? It
seems that Martha and the investors were too focused on how amazing their product was and not
the actual needs or wants of the customers that would be buying it. If Trap-Ease where to follow
a Societal Marketing Concept then they would probably more successful because they are
marketing such a new and innovative product which in the long run creates less waist because it
is re- usable and is more human because of the trap and release possibility. If they used the
Societal Marketing Concept it would augment their products strengths.

2) How do you think the group would write its mission statement? How would you write it?
I think that the group would probably write its mission statement centered around their
innovative product because they are too concentrated on their product and concentrated enough
on their customer. They would probably write something like, “Making a better mousetrap so
that all those who trod down our beaten path will benefit.” They should take the concentration
off of their product and concentrate on their customer. A better mission statement would go
something like this and include text which satisfied customers’ needs or wants; “Striving to
better satisfy pest eliminating needs of our customers through innovation and quality.” This
applies to their current product and gives them room to expand into other areas of vermin or
rodent control.

3) Has Martha identified the best target market for Trap-Ease? What other market segments
might the firm target?
Martha has targeted women for her product. She feels that women are the best group to target
because they don’t like the mess or the risks created by traditional mouse traps. This is a good
marketing segment to start off with but there are a couple of things that Martha could have
improved on. First off, she should have probably segmented women into a couple different
groups. In today’s world all women don’t stay at home and take care of kids. In fact the
population of women that do that is rapidly shrinking and being replaced by independent
professionals. In effect, by targeting women that stay at home, Martha is targeting a shrinking
market. She could probably segment women into a couple different categories. For example:
working women, single women, house wives, etc. There are also other markets which Martha
could target.

Some other market segments that hold large potential for the Trap-Ease are markets like
environmentalists, animal lovers, corporate businesses and families. The Trap-Ease mouse trap is
re-useable and therefore is reusable and therefore creates less of a strain on the environment
which would make it a very attractive thing for environmentalists and people who care about the
earth. The environmentalist market is also growing as people become more aware of global
warming and other problems such as deforestation. Animal lovers would love the Trap-Ease
mouse trap because it doesn’t require poison or pose the risk of snapping closed on a paw or
tongue of a pet. Corporate Businesses would probably like the Trap-Ease mouse trap because of
its high quality more futuristic image and the fact that it would create as much of a mess. They
would probably be less hesitant to have them sitting around the office. Families with kids should
be the primary market segment of Trap-Ease seeing as it will probably be their largest. Mouse
traps and poison pose a very large risk to infants and toddlers and caring mothers and fathers
would probably happily buy a product which would better protect their children.

4) How has the company positioned the Trap-Ease for the chosen target market? Could it
position the product in other ways?
It seems that the Trap-Ease mouse trap has positioned itself in the market as being a very
innovative and well engineered product. It has done this by winning awards from trade shows
and magazines. If it is better able to connect these features of the mouse traps with the needs and
wants of their target consumers then they should be able to generate a larger demand. They could
also try to change it’s position a little bit.
Trap-Ease could also position the product as causing less waist because it is re-useable or they
could lower it’s cost and make it more affordable. By making it “the most affordable, innovative
mouse trap” on the market they could probably gain some more demand. Another way in which
they could position their product would be by having an incredibly good customer service team
that could deliver services to their customers that were having problems using the product. By
having a good customer service team they could build better relationships with their customers
and increase their customer equity.

5) Describe the current marketing mix for Trap-Ease. Do you see any problems with this mix?

The marketing mix of a company consists of the four P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
Currently Trap-Ease only has one product, their mouse trap. They probably could create a couple
different versions of their mouse trap in order to offer more variety. The higher price of their
mouse trap seems to be consistent with a quality differentiation strategy but they probably could
offer a wider range of prices on the different models of their trap if they chose to widen their
product range. Right now they are trying to distribute their product through stores like Kmart and
Safeway. A really good market to hit would probably be the internet. People on in the internet
are often times into quality, ease of use, and innovativeness and don’t mind spending a little
more money to get what they want. It is also a high profit market because it reduces
transportation costs and there are no middle man costs. The promotion of the Trap-Ease mouse
trap seems to be one of their largest problems. They should promote over the internet for certain
on sites that they think their target market will be visiting and they should also think about
putting out ads on TV. In this changing high tech environment magazine ads aren’t enough
anymore.

6) Who is Trap-Ease America’s competition?

Trap-Ease America’s competition is any company that creates mouse traps. They face a market
in which large volume of low quality low cost mouse traps are sold. There are also poisons that
are sold which are a danger to pets and animals as well as the mice they are supposed to kill.
There are also other versions of live catch mouse traps out there. An example of one of Trap-
Ease’s competition is d-CON who offers both baits and traps. They actually also offer a version
of a no touch mouse trap in which you don’t have to touch the mouse after you have trapped it.
They are selling this for $4.29 which is higher then the suggested retail price for the Trap-Ease
mouse trap which is $2.99. This would suggest that Trap-Ease has priced lower then some of its
competitors which will give it a pricing advantage. Companies such as Havahart offer traps
which humanely catch everything from mice to voles and shrews and are competition for the
humane factors of the Trap-Ease trap. Other competitors include: Victor, JT Eaton and Riddex.

7) How would you change Trap-Ease’s marketing strategy? What kinds of control procedures
would you establish for this strategy?

The first thing I would do to change Trap-Ease’s marketing strategy would be to increase the
amount of people in their marketing team. Although Martha was probably trying to keep down
costs by not hiring anyone for her marketing team she made one important mistake. One of the
most important things when coming out with a new product is the marketing because until
you’ve communicated the benefits of your product to the consumer there will not be sufficient
demand for it. Her entry into the market was too small scale and chances are that with such an
innovative product that the company will do better in the long run with a larger scale entry. She
should have asked for a larger budget and hired more people for the marketing team. She should
have then put much more work into the Analysis of her target markets and perhaps expanded her
scope of target markets while increasing the segmentation. This would allow her to better
differentiate her product.
I would put in operating controls and strategic controls in order to monitor the marketing team’s
progress and make sure that what they are doing is consistent with the company’s goals and
strategy. These controls would very important for gathering the information that would form the
strategies in the coming years. It would also probably help to do a market audit at some point
during the first year just to make sure that things are running smoothly and it shouldn’t cost that
much to do one at such an early stage in the companies development because of the smaller
volume of papers to audit.