Trap-Ease America - the Big Cheese of Mousetraps

Trap-Ease America:The Big Cheese of Mousetraps

Backgrounds:

The company, Trap-Ease America, had obtained the rights to market an innovative mousetrap which, though had won the best new product introduced at this year’s National Hardware Show, did not sell very well in the market. The investors are not satisfied with the company’s progress so far. Therefore, Martha House, president of the company, needs to adjust t marketing strategy, thus sell enough traps to cover those costs and make a resonable profits.

Analysis:

1. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of the company and the mission statement

Trap-Ease does face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, they have managed to create an effective and innovative concept for a mousetrap. Now it has been developed and made into a reality, it offers a great opportunity for the company to grow and to increase profits.

They would need to decide what customers want and need. 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. Do research on customer needs and demand. Evaluate customer complains and customer relationship. Evaluate the skill and effectiveness of salespeople. Evaluate whether product has satisfied customers’ wants.

We think that the group would probably write a product-oriented mission statement since they are too concentrated on their product.The statement might be “To catch the pest, you need the best Trap-Ease .”

We will write the statement which is market-oriented, rather then product-oriented, just like this:” Striving to be a leader in innovative, user-friendly and safe mousetraps”

2.The market segments

According to the early research, Martha has regarded the housewives as the best target market. Awkwardly, however, the housewives only take up a small part of the market. Therefore, they are obviously not the best target market of this mousetrap. As far as we are concerned, besides the housewives, some places where the mouse problem is serious can also be the market segments of the product, such as restaurants, warehouses, communities etc.

3. The positioning

The company positions their product as a kind of innovative mousetrap,which is very safe and pleasant to use. Nevertheless, it’s better to position it combining its favorable features with the demands of the customers.

4.The competition

The companies that provides mousetraps are all the competitors of the Trap-Ease. Therefore, the Trap-Ease should grasps their advantages and gains a firm foothold through differentiation marketing.

5.The current marketing mix of Trap-Ease

The four Ps of the current marketing mix of Trap-Ease are as follows:

The four Ps Current situation Problem

Product The Trap-Ease offers an innovative mousetrap that has many advantages