Martha and Trap-Ease America

Questions: 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?2. Has Martha identified the best target market for Trap-Ease? What other market segments might the firm target?3. How has the company positioned the Trap-Ease for the chosen target market? Could it position the product in other ways?4. Describe the current marketing mix for Trap-Ease. Do you see any problems with this mix?5. Who is Trap-Ease Americas competition?6. How would you change Trap-Eases marketing strategy? What kinds of control procedures would you establish for this strategy? Answers: Introduction This report is prepared with an aim of developing understanding of the marketing concepts. It will evaluate the marketing initiatives of Trap-Ease America, which are used by company for selling its core products and services. The report will analyze the target market of company and the positioning strategy used by company to serve its target market. It will explore current marketing mix of company along with key problems faced in marketing mix. It will also analyze the competition faced by Trap-Ease America. Finally, it provides suggestions about how the company may change its marketing strategy and what kind of control may be required for success of marketing strategy. 1. Information Need for Martha and Trap-Ease America Investors for Evaluation of Market Opportunities: There is big opportunity for trap ease America, because the problems of mouse are prevailing everywhere in the country. Many of the household women are distressed due to mouse problem prevailing at their houses. So, its a biggest opportunity for trap ease to position their product in the market by making innovations (Ball and Douglas, 2012). The company can draw some special features in their product by working on need and expectations of customers and investing in RD segment. Company requires different types of information to evaluate this opportunity such as to understand why people are buying traditional trap instead of easy to handle mousetrap available in the market (Kotler and Armstrong, 2017). The company needs to evaluate the reason of why people are still involved in traditional mouse traps irrespective of presence of the modern and innovative mouse traps. They also need to evaluate whether the size of product is appropriate or not? They also need to know about what can be appropriate design of mousetrap for people, which can easily be handled without any hurdle. The company can also evaluate, whether their product is easily available in the market or not and does the companys product meet the consumers need (Sebastian-Coleman, 2012). Company can evaluate different kinds of mousetraps available in the market. How these product are different from companies product from various point of views like the price other companies charging for a particular product etc. A group may write its mission statement in such a way that can allure its customers to buy their product. A kind of statement that gives assurance to customer that they should switch to this product. The way of writing Mission Statement: One complete solution for mouse problem in your house can be appropriate tag line and mission statement of Trap-Ease America. A mission statement would be like- we will get presence in every house by producing a product, which is easy to handle, which can be used by anyone at ones place, so people can make their houses pleasant and disease free without much efforts (Jones and Kahaner, 2011). 2. Best Target Market for Trap-Ease Martha has so far identified women as the target market for their product, because womens do not like unpleasant mess and they need to take care of their children as well as pets at their houses. So, as per Marthas research, women expect from the companies to manufacture easy to handle mouse trap products, so that they can make their house mice free or we can say disease free in efficient way (Huang and Sarigolu, 2014). As women are indulged in their daily chores they cant spare enough time to cope with the problem of mice. So there are chances that companys product may gain popularity in womens group. And to reach this target market, companys CEO has decided to distribute products via national grocery, hardware and drug chain stores. She has decided to sold the products directly through retailers and to avoid the wholesalers and middleman. There are various market divisions that company may aim such as the food keeping shops or we can say grocery shop where there is big possibility of mouse. So shopkeepers require something to deal with mice problem or to save their grocery products. The others divisions faced with similar problem are like pantry of grains, where the grains are kept for ample time. To make the gunny of grains protected from mouse, they require something to deal with such problem. So the company can target pantry houses as well (Bidgoli, 2010). The restaurants also face the mouse problem, because in restaurants foods are hold for long time. Or the other target market of this company is also the apparel shops, where the clothes to be kept for long time until sold out. So, apparel shop owners need something to deal with mouse problem to make clothes safe. The need for this product may also be found in chemical laboratories, where there is necessity of such kind of products. So, company can target laborato ries as well to gain more and more customers. 3. Positioning of the Trap-Ease for the Chosen Target Market One of the important part of market mix is product positioning. Positioning is a process in which company focuses on the need of customers. Proper care should be taken while positioning a product in the market. It is a process, by which company places its products in a market with a particular brand name (Njoku, 2015). However the company positioned its product in very well defined manner but it can position their products in some other ways also. Well the strategy obtained by company to position their product is like they plan a proper budget and then divide it into various perspectives (Chernev, 2015). Company positioned its product from womens perspective. It demonstrated the mousetraps as easy to handle and more convenient to use that consumer can use safely and easily without causing an injury while loading it with fingers. It avoids the unpleasant mess and requires no clean up. Use till then you require and then throw it away. Company sale their product in package of two. Other ways of Positioning of the Product: There are various other ways, by which company can position its products. Positioning might be like it allures customer to buy their product. When the product genuinely meets the need of the customer, it will automatically benefit the company. But pricing policy of a product is also a big cause of concern as customers tilt is on that side where they find low cost price product. So at the time of positioning a product company must keep in mind the price of products (James, 2014). Because when the price of a product is low customer will buy more. Once a company successfully positioned their products, customers like their product and there will be lesser possibility of reposition by other brands. 4. Current Marketing Mix for Trap-Ease Current marketing mix of trap ease is as follow- Product-companys product mousetrap is a plastic product. Its design or measurement is 6 inches square tube bent at 30 degree angle. Price- The higher price strategy along with product differentiation is followed by company. They are currently charging $ 2.49 for their product. Place- To reach the target market, the company has contracted with national grocery, drug chain, Safeway, hardware, Kmart, Hechingers and CB drug. Promotion- Company has planned budget around $ 60,000 for promotion of the product. Out of this budgeted amount $50000 was used for travelling purpose like go to trade shows or go for sales call etc. and the remaining $10000 was used for advertisements. Problems faced with the Current Marketing Mix: There are different types of problems, which were there in companys marketing mix- Product- There can be some sort of problems in companys product such as its product is bit big in size (Baker, 2014). If company tries to curtail the size of product, then there might be a possibility that company can attract more and more consumer for their product. Price- The price that company charges for their products is extremely high, especially when we compare the price of this product to the other competitors product. So, there is big need to curtail the price of product to gain more and more customer. Place- To avail the products in the market, company has targeted only national grocery, drug chain and hardware. Through this way, the company cannot reach to its target customers and the customers queries cannot be answered properly (Jeston and Nelis, 2014). To expand their growth company has to expand their mode of distribution also. Promotion- Initially product got much publicity, so they didnt focus more on the advertisement and just stuck to 2 3 magazines like good housekeeping and home and shelter magazines. But to gain a good amount of customers such advertisement is not good enough (Baker, 2014). When a customer knows about a product or the features of a product then he / she will buy companys product. So there is need for company to start some program where product can be demonstrated to customers. 5. Competition Faced by Trap-Ease Americas In the present time, there is very tough competition that is going on in the market. If companies are not changing their style of working and product quality as per the demand of time, then they will not be able to survive in the market. There are large no of small vendors, who have a presence in the market that affect the business of the big organization. Therefore, all those companies which are making mousetrap products to kill mouse are the competitor of trap ease America. In a market, there are bulk of low cost mouse traps and poison that kill pets and mice (Sherman and Sherman, 2017). However, some of them can spread smell in the houses but still people buy those products because they are cheaper for example rat poison. There are various companies which are big competitors of trap ease such as d CON. Its product line comprises of traps and baits, which use throughout the home for entrapping and killing of mouse (Jennings, 2015). Company such as Havahart has also same product pr oducts that tenderly trap mice. Victor, Riddex, JT Eaton are also the major competitors of the company. 6. Changes in Trap-Eases Marketing Strategy Sales team is the face of the company, who presents the company in the market. The first thing the company should do is to hire some sales person, because so long as customer does not know the advantage of a product, demand of a product will not augment. To generate the demand in the market, company has to hire well experienced sales team. After the hiring process company has to provide the proper training to the sales persons in the proper intervals (Huang and Sarigolu, 2014). Sales person of company can demonstrate products easily, if they are trained. This practice of company can explore the product information in the market in a rapid way, which can generate the demand of the product. Company also has to improve the packaging of the product. If the packaging of the product would be good and attractive, then it will directly affect the sales volume. Along with this, company also has to maintain the proper pricing of the product (Kotler and Armstrong, 2017). It is necessary that the product price is not very higher than the competitors product. Pricing is a policy though which company gains more and more customers. At the initial level, the company should keep the price low. It will generate high demand. Additionally, there may be a possibility of customer switch from traditional mousetraps to companys product. Control Procedures for the Strategy Controlling is an important function for any organization. Under controlling procedure, company should take corrective measure, if any shortcoming is found in working area or if working did not goes as per the planning (Baker, 2014). To make the marketing strategy profitable, company needs to maintain the proper control over the working of their sales personnel. Company should ensure sales teams are completing their assigned target properly (Fifield, 2012). Company needs to manage and allocate appropriate budget for promotion activities. Other thing that company can do is to take corrective action, when any shortcoming is found and be ready for unforeseen events that may occur in future. Conclusion From above analysis, it can be concluded that mouse trap is the core product of Trap-Ease America. At the same time, women are specific target market of company. The company should focus on understanding the needs and expectations of customers with regards to design of mouse trap. The company should focus effective marketing of its products by showing the superiority of products and ease of use. This would contribute to growth of sales performance of company. The investment in promotional activities can also be beneficial for the company growth. References: Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., (2014)Principles of marketing. Australia: Pearson. Baker, M.J., (2014)Marketing strategy and management. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Ball, M.J., and Douglas, J.V. 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