[Rear View]

Snap Traps Provide Inspiration for Invention
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.

“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,” Halliwell said.

Almost by accident a new business idea was born. “People who would visit 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). “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.”

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 paint are used 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 designs that stand out include: A silhouette of a bird; a deck of cards; various urban designs; and 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. — Brad Harbison

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Pop Star Had “Ben” a Friend to Rodent in Hit Song
The recently deceased Michael Jackson will forever be remembered for his immense talent as well as his bizarre behavior. You might be surprised to find that pests played a part in Jackson’s professional success and also were involved in at least one of the series of strange events in Jackson’s personal life.

In 1972, 14-year-old Jackson had his first No. 1 single with “Ben,” in which Jackson pays tribute in song to his rodent friend “Ben.” The song was from the 1972 movie of the same name, which was about killer rats — a sequel to the 1971 hit “Willard.” Although Jackson had scored a No. 1 single while with the Jackson 5, “Ben” made him the third-youngest solo artist to score a No. 1 single.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Donny Osmond said that the song was originally written for him, but he was not available to record it because he was busy touring with the Osmonds at the time.

Pests would later re-enter Jackson’s life in a more peculiar circumstance. Jackson showed up for a 2003 court appearance dressed in a white satin vest and tie. But he had to explain to onlookers why he was using crutches and was wearing a white athletic sock on one foot. He told reporters, “It is a spider bite. It is real bad. If I showed it to you, you’d be shocked.”

Of course, by 2003 the pop star had become so eccentric that the public didn’t seem to be shocked by any of the daily occurrences in his life. – Brad Harbison