Company Case. Trap-Ease America: The big cheese mousetraps 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? How do you think the group would write its mission statement? How would you write it? 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. 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. 2) 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 3. 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 4. 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 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. . Who is Trap-Ease America’s competition? Considering the Place, I think, Trap-Ease can be also distributed through supermarkets (like Wal-Mart and others), because housewives often visit these kinds of supermarkets. Other items of marketing mix, in my opinion, can be remained the same The Trap-Ease America’s competition is the producer of traditional, spring-loaded trap as its price is cheaper than Trap-Ease’s and it is the perfect substitute of the Trap-Ease. 6. How would you change Trap-Ease’s marketing strategy?
What kind of control procedures would you establish for this strategy? The Trap-Ease America’s marketing strategy is based on product differentiation and widening the target. Primary consumer target is women, esp. housewives. Secondary Consumer target is docks and ship-owners. Product Strategy. The Trap-Ease America will introduce new tool fighting against mice (for example,the spray which smell frightens mice off so that they wouldn’t like to “enter” the house) or improve the Trap-Ease. For example, the plastic tube can be blacked out (toned) so that a mouse inside the trap is not seen as women are afraid of mice and would prefer not to see them at all). Distribution Strategy. The Trap-Ease will be distributed in national grocery, hardware, drug chains,and supermarkets as well. Orders will be delivered strictly on time. Control. The Trap-Ease America will strictly monitor customer service satisfaction and control the time of delivering the orders to retailers, especially to docks. The company will also control that sample mousetraps are used by retailers to demonstrate them to consumers
