If you don’t need all 10, just leave them blank and they will be omitted from the Boston Matrix. You can add up to 10 different products to the input table. The Matrix itself is on the left hand side, and the input data on the right. We’ve made an easy to use Boston Matrix template available for download on our site. If market share starts to decline as well, they will move down to the Dog quadrant. If growth starts to decline but you are able to keep the market share, they will become Cash Cows. Stars require a lot of investment to keep their market share and to sustain growth. These are your top performing products since they are in a high-growth industry and you have a high market share. Stars are plotted on the matrix in the upper right quadrant. If investment hasn’t been successful and market growth slows, they will move to a Dog status. They should be analysed carefully and if deemed fit, invested in, in the hopes of moving them on to Star status and eventually to a Cash Cow once the industry has matured. This is where most new products start from. Question Marks (also known as problem children) are products with a small share in a high-growth industry. Question Marks (Small Market Share – High Growth) It isn’t advised to invest any more than needed into these products as they are in a mature industry. They earn more that the investment needed to sustain its current market position, hence the name Cash Cows. Cash Cows (High Market Share – Slow Growth)Ĭash Cows have high market share in a slow-growing industry. According to most sources, these should be sold off. In most cases they need ongoing investment just to keep the status quo. The question is if the company’s resources should be spent on other products instead. Most likely they are generating a loss or are break-even at best. It helps the business allocate resources to the correct products.ĭogs are products with a low market share in a slow-growing industry.

The Boston Matrix was created by the Boston Consulting Group in 1970 to help businesses analyse their portfolios. If you are already familiar with the matrix, feel free to skip right to the end where we have a download link for the BCG matrix template. The BCG Matrix (also know as the Boston Matrix, growth-share matrix, product portfolio matrix, Boston Box, Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram) is a chart that helps businesses analyse different products in their portfolio.

Bcg matrix excel template