Snap Traps Provide Inspiration for Invention

NEW YORK — It’s a scene that became all too familiar for Nova Halliwell, a 26-year-old public relations executive who has lived in New York City the last two years. After finding mice (or evidence of mice) Halliwell would respond by doing what many people do in these situations: place snap traps throughout her apartment. While the traps were functional they were an unwelcome addition to the interior landscape of Halliwell’s apartment.

Mousensnaps inventors and business partners Nova Halliwell (above) and Mimi Davis (below).

“There just wasn’t a good solution,” Halliwell said. “I found myself hiding them when people came over. When we had parties I would put them away just because they are so unsightly. One day I just decided that if I’m going to have to place these all throughout my apartment I may as well make them easy for me to look at, so I painted them.”

Almost by accident a new business idea was born. “People who would come over would see them and ask, ‘Where can I buy those?’ They wanted them for their own apartments because rodents are such a common apartment problem, especially in large cities.” So Halliwell got in touch with Mimi Davis, a 25-year-old marketing executive from Philadelphia. The pair both graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia. “When I first heard of this idea I was really excited because it was an excuse for me to paint,” Davis said. “So, it was an opportunity to make a business out of being creative and doing something I love to do.”

Halliwell and Davis then put together a business plan and launched Mousesnaps. The initial steps included consumer research to find out who their target audience was, what size of a market was available to them, and what would be their long-term strategy. What they discovered was that “independent singles” (one person households ages 35-64) and “young transitionals” (one person households under 35)” — Mousesnaps’ target audience — are among the largest purchasers of mousetraps each year. They also discovered something interesting about mousetrap buying trends for couples. “While men tend to set the mousetraps, women are the ones who tend to buy them and that’s because they are mainly sold through retail stores like [pharmacies] or supermarkets,” said Halliwell. “Women also do a lot of shopping online and that is expected to increase exponentially in the next 5-10 years.”

Soon thereafter a marketing plan was developed and a Web site, www.mousesnaps.com, was launched (in late December 2008).

Mousesnaps with a fleur-de-lis design. Mousesnaps displayed to look like a deck of cards. Mousensnaps with flower designs.

“Right now, we’ve received orders for about 100 units so far (the traps are sold in counts of four),” said Halliwell. “In the coming months, we plan to market the business and grow the online store. We do have plans to go to flea markets and craft fairs and get the word out and do more point of sales. We also have plans to approach boutiques in our respective cities and get the product in stores. We’re just trying to go step-by-step at this point.”

Designing and painting the traps is the fun step. Halliwell and Davis use spray paint for the majority of the traps, although tempera and acrylic in some cases. “What we’ve found that works best is stencils or hand painting and then putting a gloss on top of that,” said Davis. “We’ve also experimented with a lot of different designs and materials.”

They’ve found that the rectangular shape of the traps make for a ideal-sized canvas. For example, the team created a Mousesnap to look like an Ipod. Some of the Mousesnap designs that stand out include:

A silhouette of a bird

A deck of cards

Various urban designs (similar to Urban Outfitters designs)

A black and gold fleur-de-lis design

Halliwell said that people they mention this venture to always have design ideas. “My brother, who is probably the least creative person I know, suggested we make one with a cat and the cat’s paw would be the (spring-loaded) bar. People really like the idea of designing and customizing the traps, whether they have mice or not,” she said.