Trap-Ease America: the Big Cheese of Mousetraps Essay Example

have an outstanding product that will be readily accepted by the market. There is little evidence in the case that the investors have done any real thinking about customer needs or have followed the marketing concept as it is introduced in the chapter. The investors believe they have a mousetrap, which will satisfy customer needs, and, therefore, customers will buy it. Students need to realize that even though a firm may have an excellent product it needs to understand customers’ needs and how they respond to those needs.

There is no indication in the case that the investor group has any marketing information about its potential customers or has done any real marketing research. The investors would need to know the size of the mousetrap market in the United States. Who buys mousetraps? What kinds do they buy? What prices are charged for the various kinds of mousetraps? How are these mousetraps sold to consumers? What customer needs do existing mousetraps solve, and which needs do they fail to solve adequately? How do consumers deal with their mice and rat problems?Answers to these and other “marketing research” types of questions would give the investors a better feel for the challenges facing them in marketing the mousetrap. Like many new, small businesses, however, the investors would write a mission statement that focused on making money for themselves. Their statement might be, “Make a lot of money by selling a patented mousetrap. ” Discussing this with the class will allow the instructor to raise the oft-repeated slogan, “maximize shareholder wealth.

” Proponents of the marketing concept might well argue that making money is not the goal of the

firm.Rather, if one follows the marketing concept, the goal of the firm must be first to satisfy the firm’s customers and to do that better than the competition. Only then does a firm have the opportunity to “make money. ” 2.

Who is identified as Trap-Ease’s target market? Are there other possible market segments that the firm could target? The case indicates that Trap-Ease is targeting housewives, and implies that housewives are reluctant to set and bait traditional spring-loaded mousetraps. They also are concerned about the safety of children and pets hat may be around the home because once the spring-loaded trap has caught a mouse, one often has a mess resulting from its action. Besides being unpleasant, the mess presents health concerns due to the diseases that may be carried by mice. There are a number of other market segments that the firm could target. The issue of disease control suggests several other potential targets.

First, the instructor might ask students where disease control concerns would be important. Any business that handles or stores food and, therefore, is attractive to rats and mice would be a potential target.Restaurants should come to mind here, both because of the presence of food and food products and also because these establishments cannot use chemicals near food. This also should suggest food wholesalers or warehouses where large quantities of food may be stored in the channel of distribution. Food manufacturers also need rodent protection.

Another potential market is research laboratories. Here, researchers use large numbers of mice in research projects. It is not unreasonable to think that some of these mice occasionally get loose.A researcher would be interested

in the ability to recapture a mouse without harming it—something that the researcher would be able to do with the Trap-Ease. Another potential target market is exterminators. Because they must work in areas where chemicals would not be allowed and traditional traps would have the same messiness problem, these companies might be a target market.

These exterminator companies might also sell the traps directly to consumers with whom they deal. This possibility will allow the instructor to talk about channels of distribution and the impact of Trap-Ease’s decision to go directly to the end customer. . How is the product positioned relative to the selected target market in the case? Are there other ways to position the product? As suggested in the answer to question 2, Trap-Ease has been positioned from the point of view of the customer as meeting safety and cleanliness needs. Because of its pricing and distribution, Trap-Ease is positioned for use by the individual homeowner who has these concerns. The major alternative positioning for the product focuses on its ability to control disease.

Because the mouse would be trapped in a fully enclosed device and would be captured live, there is little opportunity for disease to spread as a result of its capture. It should be noted, however, that positioning the product this way would make substantial differences in the entire marketing strategy. This allows the instructor to make the point that will be reinforced throughout the semester that the full marketing mix must be coordinated to position the product properly in the customer’s mind. 4.

What marketing mix has Trap-Ease established? Do you see any problems with this mix?In summary, Trap-Ease’s

marketing mix is as follows: Product: As noted above, Trap-Ease is a patented mousetrap that is designed to allow consumers to avoid the safety and cleanliness problems associated with traditional mousetraps. Perhaps by this time in the discussion someone will have already suggested one of the obvious problems with this product. That is, what does one do with a live mouse caught inside the trap? The inventor had designed the product to capture the mouse alive and to suffocate it over a period of several hours. This, however, presents a problem for the user.If the consumer discovers the trap has worked, she must pick up a trap containing a live mouse that may be squirming and squealing. Then, what does the consumer do with the mouse? It might be flushed down the toilet or let out in the woods, if one lives near woods.

We might wonder, however, if the target market, housewives, will be comfortable carrying the trap containing the live mouse and then opening the door to let it out. Later market research revealed that few people felt comfortable in this situation. On the other hand, if the consumer allows the mouse to simply suffocate in he trap, he will find that mice, like most animals, do not die quietly. You can imagine the trap bouncing around under a sink like a large Mexican jumping bean as the mouse tries to free itself. Experience indicated that the mouse also made a lot of noise prior to suffocating. The targeted housewife may find herself presented with the dilemma of how to handle a live mouse or how to put up with the noise and

unpleasantness of its suffocating.

Thus, although the trap works well to catch a mouse, it fails to deal with the problem of what does one do with the mouse.Price: The price of approximately $1. 25 per trap, when sold in packages of two, also creates a problem in that it is five to 10 times more expensive than traditional traps. This problem is complicated by the fact that if consumers have significant mouse problems, they would need a number of traps to address the problem.

Or, if they decide to simply throw away traps that contain mice to solve the disposal problem, the cost could again become prohibitive. Place: Martha House has made the decision to distribute the products directly to national chains.Although on one hand this decision makes sense given the company’s desire to achieve rapid sales growth, it creates problems for the company due to its small size. As noted in the example, which concludes the case, the company does not have its own truck and distribution facilities. It must depend on outside firms to deliver its product.

Because national chains have very strict time schedules, this makes it difficult for Trap-Ease to control its distribution. Promotion: Trap-Ease is relying basically on appearances at trade shows and some limited advertising. In fact, it is relying on word-of-mouth.Primarily, the firm depends on point-of-purchase displays to sell its product. One might wonder, however, how quickly consumers passing point-of-purchase displays for the product will understand it.

Further, the firm is dependent on whatever advertising the chains may do to generate end-customer awareness. Even early in the semester, students should understand that generating such awareness is extremely

expensive and difficult. It is not clear that Trap-Ease has adequate resources to do significant advertising aimed at end customers, and it is not clear that the chains will devote sufficient resources to advertising the product.All of these marketing mix problems should suggest that Trap-Ease has a number of significant hurdles to address if it is going to improve its performance. 5. Who is Trap-Ease’s competition? Even though Trap-Ease has a patent on its mousetrap, it does have competition.

Students may tend to think that a patent protects a firm from competition. Obviously, the traditional, spring-loaded trap is competition. Although the Trap-Ease trap has significant advantages, its price means that for many low-income consumers who probably have more mice problems, Trap-Ease is too expensive.Consumers who have better incomes and who may not be excited about dealing with dead or live mice will probably simply turn to exterminators to take care of their problems. Although exterminators are more expensive, the benefits of having someone else take care of this unpleasant problem will be attractive to many consumers.

Thus, Trap-Ease finds itself with competition both above and below its relative price. This competition significantly reduces the size of the target market. 6. How would you change Trap-Ease marketing strategy?What kinds of control procedures would you establish in connection with this strategy? There are, of course, numerous possibilities that students might suggest.

Many students will focus on trying to make specific changes to elements of the established marketing mix. For example, some students may suggest that by lowering price the Trap-Ease will become more competitive with traditional traps and be more attractive to consumers. Any attempt to manipulate

the existing marketing mix, however, allows the instructor to make the point that the marketing mix should flow from the target market.At this time, having discussed previous questions, it should be clear to students that there is some question about the size and viability of the selected target market. In fact, there may not be a real market given the product’s positioning—at least not a market that is big enough to support the firm and reach the investor’s goals.

To revise the firm’s marketing strategy, the firm needs to begin by thinking about its target market selection. First, the student could suggest that the product has been positioned improperly.Although health and cleanliness concerns are of interest to consumers, the other aspects of the marketing mix make the product unattractive. The disease control aspects of the product, however, are important. It would be possible to reposition the product for disease control purposes and to select the industrial/institutional target market.

Thus, the target market would become food manufacturers, wholesalers, and others who store quantities of food that are subject to rat infestation and also restaurants and other institutions, where food may be handled and where poisons and other rat control measures are inappropriate.With respect to the marketing for this new target market, the firm needs to develop larger sizes of the trap. Some of the potential customers will have larger rats with which to deal. These firms will often have maintenance employees who will not be squeamish about dealing with and disposing of rats that are caught in such traps. With respect to price for this new strategy, there is really no information in the case to

allow the instructor to figure what the price might be.

We can imagine that, in connection with the place decision, the firm might decide to deal directly with larger exterminating companies or food wholesaling chains. The company will probably find itself in a negotiation situation as it has with the large retail chains. This will make it important that the firm understand its costs and be able to figure what prices it can agree to that will allow it to make an adequate profit. With respect to place, the firm will be required to continue to sell to a limited number of customers due to the lack of any real sales force.

This would imply that it will have to sell to food wholesalers or exterminating companies themselves unless it can find a distributor who caters to these kinds of operations. Looking for distributors who could handle some or all of the sales effort would be appropriate given the firm’s limited resources. This may put additional pressures on margins, but the firm will have to evaluate accepting smaller margins versus absorbing the cost of improving its own distribution system. The new strategy would continue to imply a trade promotion strategy.Appearing at trade shows for food wholesalers or exterminators would be a first step, and one with which the firm is familiar.

This strategy avoids the necessity for having to pursue expensive media options for developing end-customer retail demand. Advertising in trade magazines should help bring the product to the attention of targeted customers. Further, if the firm is successful in selling to exterminators, they will become its sales force. As to control procedures, the process of revising

the marketing strategy allows one to ask the students how they will monitor their progress.

In the case, Martha has no connection with the end-customer. She is dealing with buyers for the large retail chains. She is not sure who is buying the mousetrap or why or how they are using it. A first control procedure for any strategy then is to identify the target market and establish mechanisms to monitor the target’s use of and satisfaction with the product. Chapter 4, Managing Marketing Information, will introduce students to techniques, which might be used by Trap-Ease to evaluate the success of the strategy.