Trap-Ease America Questions1)Martha and the Trap-Ease America investors believe they face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What information do they need to evaluate thisopportunity? By saying they face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I assume that they are talkingabout the potential for profit and growth. However, from this case it doesn’t seem thatMartha, the president of Trap-Ease had done enough research into her market torealistically assess whether the demand for her product would be there. First she wouldneed to decide what customers want and need.
Do they want or need the safety and extrafeatures that the Trap-Ease delivers? It seems that Martha and the investors were toofocused on how amazing their product was and not the actual needs or wants of thecustomers that would be buying it. If Trap-Ease where to follow a Societal MarketingConcept then they would probably more successful because they are marketing such anew 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 theSocietal Marketing Concept it would augment their products strengths. 2)How do you think the group would write its mission statement? How wouldyou 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 concentratedenough 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 shouldtake the concentration off of their product and concentrate on their customer. A better mission statement would go something like this and include text which satisfiedcustomers’ needs or wants; “Striving to better satisfy pest eliminating needs of our customers through innovation and quality. ” This applies to their current product andgives them room to expand into other areas of vermin or rodent control 3)Has Martha identified the best target market for Trap-Ease? What othermarket segments might the firm target? Martha has targeted women for her product.
She feels that women are the best group totarget 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 thatMartha could have improved on. First off, she should have probably segmented womeninto a couple different groups. In today’s world all women don’t stay at home and takecare of kids. In fact the population of women that do that is rapidly shrinking and beingreplaced by independent professionals. In effect, by targeting women that stay at home,Martha is targeting a shrinking market.
She could probably segment women into acouple 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 aremarkets like environmentalists, animal lovers, corporate businesses and families. TheTrap-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 isalso growing as people become more aware of global warming and other problems suchas deforestation. Animal lovers would love the Trap-Ease mouse trap because it doesn’trequire poison or pose the risk of snapping closed on a paw or tongue of a pet. CorporateBusinesses would probably like the Trap-Ease mouse trap because of its high qualitymore 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 kidsshould 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 caringmothers and fathers would probably happily buy a product which would better protecttheir children 4) How has the company positioned the Trap-Ease for the chosen targetmarket? 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 veryinnovative and well engineered product.
It has done this by winning awards from tradeshows and magazines. If it is better able to connect these features of the mouse traps withthe needs and wants of their target consumers then they should be able to generate alarger 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 mostaffordable, innovative mouse trap” on the market they could probably gain some moredemand.
Another way in which they could position their product would be by having anincredibly good customer service team that could deliver services to their customers thatwere having problems using the product. By having a good customer service team theycould build better relationships with their customers and increase their customer equity 5-Describe the current marketing mix for Trap-Ease. Do you see any problemswith this mix The marketing mix of a company consists of the four P’s: Product, Price, Place andPromotion. Currently Trap-Ease only has one product, their mouse trap.
They probablycould 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 differentiationstrategy 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 todistribute 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 whatthey want.
It is also a high profit market because it reduces transportation costs and thereare 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 thatthey think their target market will be visiting and they should also think about putting outads 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 amarket in which large volume of low quality low cost mouse traps are sold.
There arealso poisons that are sold which are a danger to pets and animals as well as the mice theyare 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 totouch 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 wouldsuggest 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 catcheverything 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 increasethe amount of people in their marketing team. Although Martha was probably trying tokeep down costs by not hiring anyone for her marketing team she made one importantmistake.
One of the most important things when coming out with a new product is themarketing 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 toosmall scale and chances are that with such an innovative product that the company willdo 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 muchmore 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 marketingteam’s progress and make sure that what they are doing is consistent with the company’sgoals and strategy. These controls would very important for gathering the informationthat would form the strategies in the coming years. It would also probably help to do amarket audit at some point during the first year just to make sure that things are runningsmoothly and it shouldn’t cost that much to do one at such an early stage in thecompanies development because of the smaller volume of papers to audit
Martha has chosen women as its target market but Martha has to consider whether the woman is the decision maker when it comes to home improvement items like mousetraps. Martha could try targeting males. The men who see it as their role/duty to deal with pest control in the home thus protecting the women from the gruesome nature that is usually involves in the process. In the case of Trap-Ease the mouse maybe trap alive in the trap and women may not want to deal with that aspect but the man may have no problem of disposing the trap with a live mouse.
Businesses such as offices and warehouses are another option Martha may wish to consider. Business owners who need to safeguard their supplies and equipment can well be served by the Trap-Ease. Martha should appeal to these people showing them the benefit of using the Trap-Ease instead of poison or the traditional mousetrap. One of the benefit is when poison is used the mice may end up dead anywhere and stink up the office environment before it is found whereas the Trap-Ease you would know exactly where you place it and can dispose of it in a timely manner.
