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Redesigned mousetrap takes category to new level

As the Scotts Co. designed an improved mousetrap, it also issued this challenge to its creative team: Design a package that is on a par with the new product.

Pw 3927 Scotts Pkg4
Working with design firm Group 4, Scotts first sought to understand regional variations in climate, construction, rodent behavior, and consumer attitudes right up to and including the moment consumers dread most—the sight and disposal of a trapped mouse using the category’s long-standing wooden snap trap.

The new Ortho Home Defense MAX Kill & Contain Mouse Trap doesn’t snap fingers or paws, according to Group 4 President Frank von Holzhausen. It includes a fully enclosed trap housing with a spring-loaded moving floor that captures and contains the mouse and tail, a “mouse caught” indicator, and an easy grab-tab, and it requires no poisonous bait.

Based on interviews with rodent behavior specialists and consumer ethnographic research, von Holzhausen continues, the design was developed to fit within typical behaviors and activities exhibited by mice and consumers who use mousetraps. The trap shape was determined by spaces that mice frequent, and the small opening mimics what mice typically would consider to be a safe refuge.

The package is a two-pack vacuum-formed, high-impact polystyrene blister container made in China. The blister contains a film cover, and the spacious graphics card, printed in six colors, offers an ample billboard previously unseen in the category. Two separate compartments in the vacuum-formed tray each fully seal one trap.

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