MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HOA SEN UNIVERSITY

Department of English Languages and Cultures

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CASE STUDY
Trap Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps
Principles of Marketing Group 1

Acknowledgments
The report is made by our group including three members who are students of English
Department of Hoa Sen university.
First of all, our group thank our teacher Ms. Dang Truong Thuy Anh instructed us to complete
this report.
Thank you the efforts that the members studied and supported each other to make this report.
Aditional thanks also go to authors of articles as well as informations that comes from websites.
It helps us get documents.
Finally, with active spirits in our studies and the best attempts, we acquired to new knowledges
from Principles of Marketing, but not avoid the mistakes. We hope to provide comments, ideas
for us to improve better.

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
Principles of Marketing Group 1

Group members

Student ID Name

2150384 Nguyn Hong An Lc

2144789 Phm Thy Phng Uyn

2150465 Nguyn Thy Trang

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
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Contents
I. Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 5
II. Case Study Answers ............................................................................................................................ 6
1. Question 1: ....................................................................................................................................... 6
2. Question 2: ....................................................................................................................................... 6
3. Question 3: ....................................................................................................................................... 6
4. Question 4: ....................................................................................................................................... 7
5. Question 5: ....................................................................................................................................... 7
6. Question 6: ....................................................................................................................................... 8
III. Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 8
IV. References ............................................................................................................................................ 9

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
Principles of Marketing Group 1

I. Summary
Trap Ease America is located in Costa Mesa, California, is a company that offers a new
solution to a commonly found problem, mice. Martha House is the president of Trap Ease
America. The Trap-Ease is a simple yet clever device, manufactured by a plasticsfirm under
contract with Trap-ease America. The trap works simple efficiency. This Trap-Ease had many
advantages for the consumer when compare with traditionalspring-loaded traps or mouse
poisons. Trap-Ease has much strength that othersdont. Trap-Ease mousetrap win first price in
the National Hardware Show. Trap-Ease America should use this reputation to persuade
consumers to buy their product without wasting time. But lack of information about the current
marketsituation is a problem for Trap-Ease. Trap-Ease should try to convince their customer that
using their product will be safer and no mess. In order to success insuch an aggressive market,
Trap-Ease America should have a better productlaunching technique. ...

... to let the consumer look and try for themselves and build up the customermind about this
product is better than others method of mousetrap. If Trap-Ease islack of marketing expertise
they should get help from the marketing professional.With pure marketing expertise, a series of
effective promotion and advertisementcan be done. This will help to boost up the sales and
deep into consumer mindabout benefit of this product and keep on using it in the future. By using
propermarketing methods, Trap-Ease mousetrap should be success in the market in the future.

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
Principles of Marketing Group 1

II. Case Study Answers

1. Question 1:
Martha and the Trap-Ease American 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?

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: A innovative moustraps that works effectively.

Required information to evaluate the opportunity:
Decide whether the company has a unique selling point (USP) that will put it as a
competitive advantage over other companies.
Decide whether customers are willing to pay a higher price for the more-for-more
value proposition offered by the company.
Evaluate the market segments, and decide whether the right segments have been targeted.
Mission statement: Providing a mouse-free environment in a convenient and effective manner
while considering everyones needs and values.

2. Question 2:
Has Martha identified the best target market for Trap-Ease? What other market segments
might the firm target?
She did indentify the best target market because most men do not really care about the mouse
itself or the type of mouse trap.
Most women want to get rid of the mouse itself, but do not want to kill it because it is inmoral
and they do not like the mess.
Perhaps they could try to focus on companies as well for example supermarkets or food factories.

3. Question 3:
How has the company positioned the Trap-Ease for the chosen target market? Could it
position the product in other ways?

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
Principles of Marketing Group 1

The position of the Trap-Ease is Traps Mice Easily. Other suitable positions will be; Never
see or touch a dead mouse again, Trap-Ease is clean, safe and easy to use and Avoid the
mess and create a no clean-up problem with Trap-Ease.

4. Question 4:
Describe the current marketing mix for Trap-Ease. Do you see any problems with this mix?
Product: 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.
Price: The higher price if 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.
Place: National grocery, hardware, and drug chains such as Safeway, Kmart, Hechingers and
CB Drug.
Promotion:
Right now, Trap-Ease has an advertising budget of $60.000.
They spend $10.000 on Good Housekeeping and other home and shelter magazines.
The other $50.000 are spent on travel costs to visit trade shows and to make sales calls on
retailers
They are trying to distribute 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 dont mind spending a little
money to get what they want. It is also a high prosit market because it reduces
transportation costs and there are 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 of sites that they think their target
market will be visiting and they should think about putting out ads on TV. In this
changing high tech environment magazine ads arent enough anymore.

5. Question 5:
Who is Trap-Ease Americas competition?

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
Principles of Marketing Group 1

Trap-Ease Americas competition is any company that creates mouse traps. They face market in
which large volume of low quality low cost mouse traps are sold. There are also poisons that are
sold which are a danger to pets and animals as well as the mice the are supposed to kill. There
are also other versions of live catch mouse traps out there. An example of one of Trap-Eases
competition is d-CON who offers both baits and traps.

6. Question 6:
How would you change Trap-Eases marketing strategy? What kinds of control procedures
would you establish for this strategy?
Target Group
Product Strategy: The Trap-Ease America will introduce new tool fighting againstmice
(for example,the spray which smell frightens mice off so that they wouldnt like to
enter thehouse) or improve theTrap-Ease. (For example, the plastic tube can be blacked
out(toned) so that a mouse inside the trap isnot seen as women are afraid of mice
andwould 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.
Promoting Strategy
Control: The Trap-Ease America will strictly monitor customer service satisfactionand
control thetime of delivering the orders to retailers, especially to docks. The company
will alsocontrol thatsample mousetraps are used by retailers to demonstrate them
to consumers.

III. Conclusion
In conclusion, as we want to increase expenditure on promotion especially on advertisement we
shall do budgeting, which is a balance between the cost of generating the advertising materials
and the revenue created by the marketing plan. There are several controls in place that can be
used to monitor a marketing budget, including print advertising expenses, travel expenses for
trade shows. All of these costs need to be closely monitored to minimize spending and maximize

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Case Study: Trap Ease America
Principles of Marketing Group 1

profitability (maximize efficiency). By examining expenses, you are able maintain your budget
and see exactly where spending increases come from.

IV. References
1. Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2014). Principles of Marketing, 15th Edition. New Jersey,
USA: Pearson Education.
2. Taylor, N.F. (2016, April 1). SWOT Analysis: What It Is and When to Use It. Retrieved
from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4245-swot-analysis.html
3. Trap Ease Case study Essays. Retrieved from http://coursehero.com
4. Dwyer. F. R. (2006). Business Marketing : Connecting Strategy, Relationships and
Learning, 3rd Edition. USA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
5. Hutt, M. D., & Speh, T. W. (2004). Business Marketing Management: A Strategic View of
Industrial and Organizational Markets. USA: South-Western College.
6. Morris, M. H., Pitt, L. F., & Honeycutt, E.D. (2001). Business-to-Business Marketing: A
Strategic Approach. New York: SAGE.

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Case Study: Trap Ease America