Build A Better Mousetrap And The World Will Beat A Path To Your Door. Really?

This quote has been attributed to the great Ralph Waldo Emerson. Actually, he said something different, and the quote was cobbled together by a smart advertising man, decades after Emerson lived.
But small business owners can learn a lot from this quote. For example...

This quote has been attributed to the great Ralph Waldo Emerson. Actually, he said something different, and the quote was cobbled together by a smart advertising man, decades after Emerson lived.
But small business owners can learn a lot from this quote. For example...


There are several points to consider if you want to start a small business to build mousetraps. Of course "mousetrap" is a metaphor for any new product. I just picked mousetraps because it was catchy. These points will apply to that thing you sell too. Just watch.
1) Do people really want a better, and more expensive mousetrap? Is there something about the mousetraps sold now that people don’t like? For example, do people get their fingers snapped by the tripping mechanism? Do they hate the idea of picking up a dead mouse to dispose of it? Is it the sight o the dead mouse? The smell? Just the idea of mangling a perfectly innocent mouse?
If so, there is a marketing and advertising opportunity here.
2) Is your market growing, or shrinking? Are there more people buying mousetraps than last year? If so, you have an opportunity to ride the wave with a slightly cheaper version of the current mousetrap. You may consider writing an article about the evils of mice infesting you home. You could write to the local newspaper about how mice cause more damage every year than termites. If the number of mousetraps sold every year is sharply declining, is it because there is something better out there killing mice? If not, building a better mousetrap, with dwindling demand, is a sure way to go bankrupt.
3) The world will beat a path to your door? Really? How will they know that you even have a better mousetrap? If there are any paths that are beaten here, it’s you beating a path to the marketplace. First you have to identify the people who would buy a mousetrap at all. What causes mice to invade a home? Are there demographic biases to where mice like to live? If there are no mice in California (for example), marketing your better mousetrap there would be a total waste. Is there a mouse-outbreak anywhere? Do floods give rise to more mice? Hurricanes?
Is there a type of home where mice are more of a problem? One story? Basement? Fireplace?
4) Do people really want to kill mice? Would a more accepted product be one that repels mice? How about something that repels mice, and gets rid of the smell (assuming that dead mice smell) at the same time? Is that something people want? How about a way to treat the wood or insulation so that mice hate the taste, and won’t come in at all?
5) The biggest problem I see with the quote "Build a better mousetrap..." is that it assumes that the right way to sell something is to just decide what you want to build, make it good, and then let people figure out that you have it, that it will do the job they want, that it’s worth the price, and that a mousetrap is what they want. That’s got everything in marketing in reverse.
Great marketing is : Finding out what people want (what problem they have), making sure that there is a demand in place for this solution, seeing what else is out there to solve that problem,
Figuring out if they will like your product better (not they should like it better, but actually will)
And then how will you market the new solution? What type of advertising and marketing works now to sell a comparable solution? Can you find list of people that already need and want what you have? Who else is building a better mousetrap, and how do they sell it?
"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door? Maybe, but that’s not how I would bet.

Of course, I wrote the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at http://www.claudewhitacre.com You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com