Trap-Ease America

Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps1

Conventional Wisdom

One April morning, Martha House, president of Trap-Ease America, entered her office in Costa

Mesa, California. She paused for a moment to contemplate the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that

she had framed and hung near her desk.:

"If a man [can] ...make a better mousetrap than his neighbor. ..the world will make a

beaten path to his door."

Perhaps, she mused, Emerson knew something that she didn't. She had the better mousetrapÐ'--

Trap-EaseÐ'--but the world didn't seem all that excited about it.

The National Hardware Show

Martha had just returned from the National Hardware Show in Chicago. Standing in the trade

show display booth for long hours and answering the same questions hundreds of times had been

tiring. Yet, all the hard work had paid off. Each year, National Hardware Show officials held a

contest to select the best new product introduced at that year's show. The Trap-Ease had won

the contest this year, beating out over 300 new products.

Such notoriety was not new for the Trap-Ease mousetrap, however. People magazine had run a

feature article on the trap, and the trap had been the subject of numerous talk shows and articles

in various popular press and trade publications.

Despite all of this attention, however, the expected demand for the trap had not materialized.

Martha hoped that this award might stimulate increased interest and sales.

Background

A group of investors had formed Trap-Ease America in January after it had obtained worldwide

rights to market the innovative mousetrap. In return for marketing rights, the group agreed to

pay the inventor and patent holder, a retired rancher, a royalty fee for each trap sold. The group

then hired Martha to serve as president and to develop and manage the Trap-Ease America

organization.

Trap-Ease America contracted with a plastics-manufacturing firm to produce the traps. The trap

consisted of a square, plastic tube measuring about 6 inches long and 1-Ð'Ð... inches in diameter.

The tube bent in the middle at a 30-degree angle, so that when the front part of the tube rested on

a flat surface, the other end was elevated. The elevated end held a removable cap into which the

user placed bait (cheese, dog food, or some other aromatic tidbit). The front end of the tube had

a hinged door. When the trap was "open," this door rested on two narrow "stilts" attached to the

two bottom corners of the door. (See picture of package front on page 3.)

The simple trap worked very efficiently. A mouse, smelling the bait, entered the tube through

the open end. As it walked up the angled bottom toward the bait, its weight made the elevated

end of the trap drop downward. This action elevated the open end, allowing the hinged door to

swing closed, trapping the mouse. Small teeth on the ends of the stilts caught in a groove on the

bottom of the trap, locking the door closed. The user could then dispose of the mouse while it

was still alive, or the user could leave it alone for a few hours to suffocate in the trap.

Martha believed the trap had many advantages for the consumer when compared with traditional

spring-loaded traps or poisons. Consumers could use it safely and easily with no risk of catching

their fingers while loading it. It posed no injury or poisoning threat to children or pets.

Furthermore, with Trap-Ease, consumers avoided the unpleasant "mess" they often encountered

1 Copyright 2001 Lew G. Brown. All rights reserved. Not for reproduction without permission of the author.

Case is for classroom discussion purposes only. The author expresses his appreciation to Trap-Ease America for its

support in development of the case.

2

with the violent spring-loaded traps. The Trap-Ease created no "clean-up" problem. Finally,

the user could reuse the trap or simply throw it away.

Martha's early research suggested that women were the best target market for the Trap-Ease.

Men, it seemed, were more willing to buy and use the traditional, spring-loaded trap. The

targeted women, however, did not like the traditional trap. These women often stayed at home

and took care of their children. Thus, they wanted a means of dealing with the mouse problem

that avoided the unpleasantness and risks that the standard trap created in the home.

To reach this target market, Martha decided to distribute Trap-Ease through national grocery,

hardware, and drug chains such as Safeway, Kmart, Hechingers, and CB Drug. She sold the trap

directly to these large retailers, avoiding any wholesalers or other middlemen.

The traps sold in packages of two, with a suggested retail price of $2.49. Although this price

made the Trap-Ease about five to