...Trap-Ease the Big Cheese of Mousetraps Martha and the Trap-Ease 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? First of all there are four primary areas for assessment that should be considered. 1. People Behind the idea: the background, talents, and experience of the personnel behind the idea and the management team, employees, and advisers. 2. Resources available: 3. The knowledge and information possessed by the entrepreneur, including knowledge of the new concept, the industry, and market research. Moreover they shall consider barriers to entry, location, competitors, social and economic trends, regulatory factors, target market, and market penetration and more importantly how information would be obtained? 4. The idea’s ability to generate revenue. How great is the potential to sell something that will generate actual revenues? There are a lot of tools that can be used to evaluate the initial idea and subsequent opportunities. • Creative tools such as ALUO (Advantages, Limitations, Uniqueness, and Opportunity) can help entrepreneurs identify the key strategic points and differences surrounding their ideas for the business. • The KIC (Knowledge of Industry Checklist), including a comprehensive competitor analysis, is a useful guide for collecting and interpreting information about the industry. • “Give Me Five”...
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...Case Analysis Case: Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps Product: Variety, quality, design, features, brand, packing, services, warranties, returns. Price: List price, discounts, allowances, payment period, credit terms. Promotion: Sales promotion, advertising, sales force, public relations, and direct marketing. Place: Channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, transport. Strategic Marketing Choose de value: STP: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. The marketing staff must segment the market, select the appropriate market target, and develop the offering’s value positioning. Tactical Marketing Provide the value: Product development, service development, pricing, sourcing making, distributing. Communicate the value: Sales force, sales promotion, and advertising. Strategy Formulation: Overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. 1) Diagnose Advantages: Consumers can use safely and easily with no risk, and it poised no injury or poising. Target Market: Women Distribution: Direct through national grocery, hardware, and drug chains (Safeway, Kmart…). Pricing: $0.99 – Suggested Retail Price $2.49 (2 unit) – Cost $0.392 – Retail net revenue $0.75. Price Positioning: 5 to 10 times more expensive Sales expenses: $60,000 ($50K for travel, and sales calls - $10K advertising). Advertising: Good Housekeeping Magazine. Sales Forecast: 5 millions of units - Current Sales: Several hundred thousand. Budget: $250,000 for fixed...
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...Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese Of Mousetraps In: Business and Management Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese Of Mousetraps Case Analysis Case: Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps Product: Variety, quality, design, features, brand, packing, services, warranties, returns. Price: List price, discounts, allowances, payment period, credit terms. Promotion: Sales promotion, advertising, sales force, public relations, and direct marketing. Place: Channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, transport. Strategic Marketing Choose de value: STP: Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. The marketing staff must segment the market, select the appropriate market target, and develop the offering’s value positioning. Tactical Marketing Provide the value: Product development, service development, pricing, sourcing making, distributing. Communicate the value: Sales force, sales promotion, and advertising. Strategy Formulation: Overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. 1) Diagnose Advantages: Consumers can use safely and easily with no risk, and it poised no injury or poising. Target Market: Women Distribution: Direct through national grocery, hardware, and drug chains (Safeway, Kmart…). Pricing: $0.99 – Suggested Retail Price $2.49 (2 unit) – Cost $0.392 – Retail net revenue $0.75. Price Positioning: 5 to 10 times more expensive Sales expenses: $60,000 ($50K for travel, and sales calls...
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...Marketing & Advertising Trap-Ease America: the Big Cheese of Mousetraps By vareemon | September 2010 Zoom InZoom Out Page 1 of 4 Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps 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? The information they need to evaluate this opportunity is their market share compare to the whole mousetrap market. They can also scope down and use the following information: -Check whether their marking plan is efficient and effective. -Check with retailer and distributors whether sales are increasing or not. They might need to conduct a research to evaluate bottom line reasons of decreasing in sales. -Monitor their customers, competitors, and suppliers. They could evaluate the competitors in terms of their marketing mix and their customer. -Monitor internal organization personal. -Research whether demand for the product is steady, increasing, or decline. -Perform a SWOT analysis. -Do research on customer needs and demand. -Evaluate customer complains and customer relationship. -Evaluate the skill and effectiveness of salespeople. -Evaluate whether product has served customer wants How would you write a mission statement? I would write a mission statement by emphasizing the strength of the product. We strive to be a leader in innovative, user friendly and safety, and quality mousetrap. We provide hygienic solution to your rodent...
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...Walmart vs Target Calculate profit margin, net marketing contribution, marketing return on sales (or marketing ROS), and marketing return on investment (or marketing ROI) for both companies. Which company is performing better? Profit margin: Profit / sales Net marketing contribution: Gross Profit - marketing costs Marketing ROS: net marketing contribution / sales Marketing ROI: net marketing contribution / marketing costs According to the data shown in the table above Target is preforming better than Walmart. At the first observation, one would assume that Walmart is performing better because of its higher sales and profits. However, the data above shows that Target is preforming better and is more efficient than Walmart. First, Target’s profit margin is 4.9%, this means that its profits make up 4.19% of its sales, while Walmart’s profits only make 3.51% of its sales. This tells us that Target manages its expenses relative to its net sales. Meaning it has managed to keep its expenses relatively low to its sales. Second, the net marketing contribution. This tells us the net contribution to profits after all marketing expenses are accounted for. Walmart here has a higher value because it generate more sales than target. By looking at the value one would assume that Walmart is better off because it has a higher net contribution to profits, but this does not mean that it is preforming better. Third, the marketing ROS. Target has an ROS of 15.9%, this means that its...
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...3812557 Taina Carvalho M. Luciano GDBA 504/2 A: Marketing Thursday, September 25th, 2014 Assignment 1 Presented to: David Moscovitz TRAP-EASE AMERICA: THE BIG CHEESE OF MOUSETRAPS 1. Martha and the Trap-Ease America investors believe they face an 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? In order to make the best out of this opportunity Martha and Trap-Ease America organization need to understand strengths and weakness of the company and the opportunities and threats of the market they are introducing themselves to, the size of that market and competitors, applicable marketing channels, specially the distribution channel, therefore their transportation methods and logistics, manufacturing costs, and required return on investment and profit. They also “need to understand customers needs better than competitors do and deliver more customer value“ to gain competitive advantage. According to the information on our textbook, Trap-Ease America focus essentially on their product and not much on the costumer, thus their mission statement would be something close to “The greatest innovation in mouse trap”. In my opinion they should focus more on the costumer and what they believe they are looking for as well as on the features of the product, such as “We provide hygienic, eco-friendly and safe solution to your rodent...
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...Marketing Company case Trap ease American: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps Presented for: Luis Fernando Correa Presented by: Andrés Felipe Doblado Paula Andrea Buitrago Luis Miguel Ramos Valentina Ramirez University of La Sabana Febrary 07 of 2014 BACKGROUND In 1987, 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 House to serve as president and to develop and manage the Trap-Ease America organization. Martha had initially forecasted Trap-Ease’s first-year sales at five million units. Through April, however, the company had only sold several hundred thousand units. Martha wondered if most new products got off to such a slow start, or if she was doing something wrong. She had detected some problems, although none seemed overly serious. For one, there had not been enough repeat buying. For another, she had noted that many of the retailers upon whom she called kept their sample mousetraps on their desks as conversation pieces and she wanted the traps to be used and demonstrated. Martha wondered if consumers were also buying the traps as novelties rather than as solutions to their mouse problems. In these first few months, Martha had learned that marketing anew product was not an easy task. Some customers...
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...Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps Company Case 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? Martha, the president of Trap-Ease and its investors need to improve their marketing strategy by understanding which is the best and the most efficient way to obtain their target market within their budget. When they talk about a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity, they are talking about the potential for profit and growth. Martha and the investors have to set company objectives and goals, to build strong customer relationships, to focus on a customer-driven marketing strategy (market segmentation, market targeting, market differentiation and positioning), to develop an effective integrated marketing mix in order to manage the marketing effort (marketing analysis, marketing planning, marketing implementation, marketing control). Particularly inside the marketing analysis, they have to realize a SWOT analysis which determines the company’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities for Trap-Ease in the marketplace in order to match the company’s strengths to attractive opportunities in the environment while simultaneously eliminating weaknesses and minimizing the threats because they have not done research into the market to assess whether the demand for the product...
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...Trap-Ease America: The Big Cheese of Mousetraps Trap Ease America is the number “ONE” mouse trap that has been in the market for many years. Is easy and safety to use. User can dispose of the mouse while is still alive, or the user could leave it alone for a few hours to suffocate inside the trap. Trap Ease had won a contest and beat 300 new products. According to people magazine, Trap Ease has brought a lot of attention and therefore they have a high demand. But Trap Ease had not actualized the demand. A group of investors invested into Trap Ease and hired a retired rancher and Martha to serve as president to develop and manage the Trap Ease America organization. Questions for Discussion 1. The first step Martha and her team need is the 4 C’s. The 4 C’s consists of Customer Needs & want, Cost to customer, Convenience and Communication ( Robert L). My mission statement would be “to catch a mouse, NOW is “Safe and Easier”. To catch a mouse is “Cheaper and faster”, Trap Ease is the Solution to the mouse problems and child proof. 2. Martha has identified a few market segments (Women/ concern about mouse), but in my opinion; she has not been productive about it. In fact, Martha is having issues with building strong customer relationship. One market segment I will build will be a partner relationship management team. This team not only will recognize the 4c’s but also build an organizational culture for Trap Ease America organization. This team’s strategy will study...
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...Q 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? A 1. I think they believe that they have a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity because Trap-Ease is an new and innovative idea for a mouse trap so it can be potential for the company’s growth and profit but in order to fully take advantage of this opportunity Trap-Ease America will have to first find out the actual needs and wants of their potential costumers which i think should not be limited to only women, they need to find out if the customers actually need a product with these many additional features because the customers might wish or even want such a hygienic and safe approach for a mouse trap but might not be willing to pay the extra cost that comes with it. Trap-ease America also needs to determine the products strength, weakness, opportunities and threats to further analyze and decide how they want to sell the product and use this opportunity to its fullest. I think that the mission statement should be written in a such a way where it describes how this mouse trap is something different and innovative compared to its traditional counter parts because i think if the difference is clearly mentioned in the mission statement than it would definitely catch the interest of the customer when they are deciding on which mouse trap to buy...
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...Understand why marketing is crucial to economic development and our global economy. 5. Know why marketing special— ists—including middlemen and — facilitators—develop. 6. Know the marketing functions and who performs them. 7. Understand the important new terms (shown in red). www.mhhe. When it’s time to roll out of bed in the morning, does your General Electric alarm wake you with a buzzer—or by playing your favorite radio station? Is the station playing rock, classical, or country music—or perhaps a Red Cross ad asking you to contribute blood? Will you slip into your Levi’s jeans, your shirt from L. L. Bean, and your Reeboks, or does the day call for your Brooks Brothers interviewing suit? Will breakfast be Lender’s Bagels with cream cheese or Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes—made with grain from America’s heartland—or some extra large eggs and Oscar Mayer bacon cooked in a Panasonic microwave oven imported from Japan? Will you drink decaffeinated Maxwell House coffee—grown in Colombia—or some Tang instant juice? Will you eat at home or is this a day to meet a friend at the Marriott-run cafeteria—where you’ll pay someone else to serve your breakfast? After breakfast, will you head off to school or work in a Kia Sportage, on your in-line skates, or on the bus that the city bought from General Motors? When you think about it, you can’t get very far into a day without bumping into marketing— and what the whole marketing system does for you. It affects every aspect of our lives—often...
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...The Wow Project In the new economy, all work is project work. And you are your projects! Here’s how to make them all go Wow! First appeared: FC24, p.116 BY TOM PETERS I learned about the future of work by living in the projects — the kind of projects you routinely do at a professional-services firm. More years ago than I care to remember, I reported to the offices of McKinsey & Co. in San Francisco for my first day as a professional management consultant. At 9 a.m., I started to work. At 3 p.m. that afternoon, I was on an airplane to Clinton, Iowa to work on a project that involved an investment in a $150 million petrochemical plant, and even if you’d spotted me four letters, I couldn’t have spelled “petrochemical.” But that was life — in the projects. Fast-forward 25 years. All white-collar work is project work. The single salient fact that touches all of our lives is that work is being reinvented. The workplace revolution that transformed the lives of blue-collar workers in the 1970s and 1980s is finally reaching the offices and cubicles of the white-collar workers. For the blue-collar worker, the driving force behind change was factory automation using programmable machine tools. For the office worker, it’s office automation using computer technology: enterprise-resource-planning systems, groupware, intranets, extranets, expert systems, the Web, and e-commerce. After decades of wholesale neglect, companies are finally facing the fact of pathetic white-collar productivity...
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...The Evolving Food Chain: Competitive Effects of Wal-Mart’s Entry into the Supermarket Industry∗ Emek Basker University of Missouri Michael Noel University of California–San Diego September 2008 Abstract We analyze the effect of Wal-Mart’s entry into the grocery market using a unique store-level price panel data set. We use OLS and two IV specifications to estimate the effect of Wal-Mart’s entry on competitors’ prices of 24 grocery items across several categories. Wal-Mart’s price advantage over competitors for these products averages approximately 10%. On average, competitors’ response to entry by a Wal-Mart Supercenter is a price reduction of 1–1.2%, mostly due to smaller-scale competitors; the response of the “Big Three” supermarket chains (Albertson’s, Safeway, and Kroger) is less than half that size. Low-end grocery stores, which compete more directly with Wal-Mart, cut their prices more than twice as much as higher-end stores. We confirm our results using a falsification exercise, in which we test for Wal-Mart’s effect on prices of services that it does not provide, such as movie tickets and dry cleaning services. JEL Codes: L11, L13, L81 Keywords: Wal-Mart, Retail Prices, Supermarkets, Price Competition ∗ Contact: emek@missouri.edu or mdnoel@ucsd.edu. We thank Saku Aura, Roger Betancourt, Paul Dobson, Luke Froeb, Jerry Hausman, G¨nter Hitcsh, Ephraim Leibtag, Saul Lach, Daniel Levy, Ye¸im u s Orhun, David Parsley, the editor and two anonymous referees...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO AND JULIET By ARTHEA J.S. REED, PH.D. S E R I E S W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., E D I T O R S : UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 2 INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an excellent introduction to Shakespearean drama; teenagers can relate to its plot, characters, and themes. The play’s action is easily understood, the character’s motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically...
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...Dedicated to St John the Blasphemist Saint of Freakin‟ Awesome Holy Texts Cover Art by MonkeysInACan aka Captain Chris Taylor, Tigger_the_Wing, and Rev. Rowan Redbeard Table of Contents Proclamations of the Councils of Olive Garden.........................................................................1 Second Announcement Regarding Canonical Belief......................................................................2 Third Announcement Regarding Canonical Belief.........................................................................3 The Old Pastament........................................................................................................................4 The Book of Midgets/Midgits.........................................................................................................5 The Creation of Mankind..............................................................................................................14 A Reading From the Book of Fusilli..............................................................................................15 The Book of Penelope....................................................................................................................17 The Book of Linguini.....................................................................................................................20 The Torahtellini Part 2............................................................................................................
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