IT service provider LG CNS had to delete a post from its PR blog because of what South Korean President Park Geun-hye said during a meeting on trade and investment promotion at the Blue House on July 7.
Park said, “There is an American mousetrap manufacturer called Woolworth. Thinking outside the box, this American company designed a pretty-looking, reusable plastic mousetrap that never let a trapped mouse go by any chance. Who would ever take that kind of approach towards a mousetrap Such a novelty offers us much food for thought.”
The problem is that the company, which Park identified as “Woolworth,” is actually called Animal Trap Co. of America and its sleek plastic, reusable mousetrap, called the Little Champ, failed miserably. The Little Champ is thus often used as a perfect example of the “better mousetrap fallacy,” the mistaken notion that if a company produces a technically better product than its competitors it will be more successful in the marketplace.
Om March 19, LG CNS wrote a blog post about the better mousetrap fallacy: “The Little Champ was an excellent mousetrap in terms of not only product performance but also design and hygiene factors. It was reusable and a little more expensive than the tried-and-true snap traps.”
“However, the Little Champ was a flop. No one liked the idea of emptying a dead mouse’s body into the garbage. It grossed them out. They just wanted to throw the trap away and forget it.”
“Woolworth, then president and chairman of Animal Trap, simply thought a technically better mousetrap would have more customers beating a path to the company’s door. The Little Champ is an example of committing the “better mousetrap fallacy.”
Judging from what the post said, President Park taking Woolworth’s mousetrap for example was inappropriate while talking about innovation.
Following the meeting, LG CNS swiftly deleted the post from its blog. An LG CNS official said: “We’ve heard that there was a post about Woolworth’s mousetrap on our blog and we just took it down not to cause any controversy.”