Trap-Ease

Case Study

1- Reading this case, it's clear that the idea of Trap-Ease can be described as one of the market opportunity sources in which an existing product is introduced but with an innovative idea. So this product is already having competitors & to evaluate the opportunity of this product, Martha & the investors should have information & answers of some questions obtained by performing a MOA (Market Opportunity Analysis) which is part of the SWOT analysis. In the MOA we ask some questions which determine the attractiveness & probability of opportunity success such as: 1. Can the benefits involved in the opportunity (the innovative features of the Trap-Ease product) be articulated convincingly to a defined target market(s)? 2. Can the target market(s) be located and reached with cost-effective media and trade channels? 3. Does the company possess or have access to the critical capabilities and resources needed to deliver the customer benefits? 4. Can the company deliver the benefits better than any actual or potential competitors? 5. Will the financial rate of return meet or exceed the company's required threshold for investment? 6. If there are any weakness points discovered in the product, do the company have alternative solutions & resources enough to eliminate these points? The answer of these questions along with a tight strategic plan will provide a clear evaluation for the opportunity.
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The group would write a mission statement focuses on their product & on how innovative is it such as "We are making innovative mousetraps which are: easy to use, reusable & humane"

A mission statement should has the following factors: 1. Can be shared with managers, employees & customers. 2. Clear, short, memorable, meaningful & thoughtful . 3. rovides employees with shared sense of purpose, direction & opportunity. 4. Reflects a vision for next 10 to 20 years & dosen't focus on a specific. 5. Let the customer believe that the way the company thinks about its products is the same way when he/she thinks about something he/she needs or misses. 6. Focus on a limited number of goals. 7. Stresses the company's major policies and values. 8. Narrows the range of individual discretion so that employees act consistently on important issues. 9. Defines the major competitive spheres within which the company will operate: Industry, products & applications, competence, market segments, vertical (The number of channel levels from raw material to final product & distribution) & geographical range. So my mission statement would be, "The purpose of our company is to make people's life easier by providing smart, easy to use, user friendly, innovative yet humane solutions for perfect housekeeping & more".

2-Martha has targeted women for her product. She feels that women are the best group to target because they don t like the mess created by traditional mouse traps especially if they are raising children. This is a good marketing segment to start off with but there are other markets which Martha could target along with women. & these other markets may be head to head with women segment when we talk about sales numbers. Martha could have target some other market segments like environmentalists, animal lovers because Trap-Ease mousetrap is humane, reusable solution & doesn't require poison or pose the risk of snapping closed on any part of the mouse. Another market segment is corporate businesses that will 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. Also Families with kids should be the primary market segment of Trap-Ease seeing as it will probably be their largest. Other market segments also have a promising opportunity: online markets (such as ebay & Amazon users), warehouses, retails, restaurants, canteens. Also pest control companies must be primarily targeted and a joint venture can be planned if necessary.

3. From her point of view, Martha has targeted women for her product. The company has positioned its product by focusing on how how humane is it, how it can avoid the unpleasant mess consumers encounter with the violent spring-loaded traps. She tried to let the targeted segment get to know the product by: -Distributing it through national grocery, hardware, and drug chains such as Safeway, Zellers . . -Displaying the product at booths in trade shows -Running feature articles in magazines and articles in various popular press and trade publications - Subjecting the product in numerous talk shows. The company could have positioned the products in other ways by: -First expanding the chosen market segments to include other markets such as: environmentalists, animal lovers, online markets, business corporates, warehouses . -Focusing on the other advantages of the product such as: reuseability, its smart shape that it can be used in offices, easy to use by all family members . -Using a reasonable budget for advertising & having a proper tight advertising plan. -Hiring other salespersons -Using other marketing channels like Toll-free numbers, newspaper, television, radio and mobile marketing. -Offering greater value to target customers by means of discounts or some other ways of sales promotion -Improving the CRM & the fulfillment of management processes.

4-The marketing mix of a company consists of the four P s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The current marketing mix for Trap-Ease mousetrap can be described as follows: Product: Trap-Ease has just one product, with very good quality compared with the other mousetraps available in the market, Trap-Ease mousetrap has smart innovative design & new advantages, the brand name has gained fair attention, it's sold in package of two units. Price: List price $2.49 per packing of two units which is slightly more expensive than other mousetraps, discounts are offered to the retailers but not to the customers. Promotion: Advertising budget is low, there is no sales force except Martha, poor sales promotion, no direct marketing, public relations: Though press magazines, articles, talk shows. Place: Channels: Retailers, no wholesalers or middlemen. Transportation: Shipments delivered through trucks.Locations: National grocery, hardware, and drug chains.

-There are some problems in the marketing mix. They probably could create a couple of different versions of their mousetrap in order to offer more variety (Shape, sizes & colors). They could create solutions for the problems of other animals or insects or provide other housekeeping services & tools so the brand name has a conflict with offering other products doing other functions. They have to redefine the brand name.

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. The company should offer greater value to target customers by means of discounts or some other ways of sales promotion. 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 that they think their target market will be visiting and they should also think about putting out ads on TV. In this changing high tech environment magazine ads aren t enough anymore. The also should hire more salespersons to promote the product very well. Right now they are trying to distribute their product through stores like Kmart and Safeway. Retailers & online markets are really good places to hit. 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 what they want. Everybody in the world also can reach online markets.

************************************** 5-Trap-Ease competition is any company that creates mouse traps especially these low cost spring loaded traps produced in large volume with low quality. Indirect competitors are for example: pest control professionals (people who will find Trap-Ease mousetrap is easy to use may not need pest control professionals anymore), companies that produces poisons, companies that produces the materials of the traditional metal spring loaded mouse traps.

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6- The first thing I would do to change Trap-Ease s marketing strategy would be redefining the big idea, redefining the value along with the mission statement of the company. Also the name of the company let the consumer tale the first impression of the company as a one which produces just easy traps. The name of the company may confilict with the future development of the product. I would expand marketing team & hire more salespersons because this increases the range of communication between the company & consumers. One of the most important things when coming out with a new product is the marketing because until you ve communicated the benefits of your product to the consumer there will not be sufficient demand for it. Martha's entry into the market was in too small scale, she relied on how innovative is the product & was satisfied with attention the product has take from trade shows, but she should have hired more salespersons to support sales targets. She should have set a larger budget for marketing. Targeting other market segments is very important in supporting the product especially when there is market segments not targeted yet that may have promosing interest in the product. After analyzing markets segments & expanding the targeting plan, a positioning criteria should be used according to each targeted market segment to deliver the right values for the right consumer & this allows to better differentiate the product as well. Along with all the points above she must fix the defects in the marketing mix & set the proper strategic & tactical plans.

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
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points during the first year just to make sure that things are running according to the plan. Monitoring sales numbers along with data collected from marketing team about competitors & analyzing these data are very important in order to control & keep eyes on market changes & know if marketing team is taking the right moves to modify &/or improve the marketing plan according to the market requirements.

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