Boston Matrix

Simple analysis tool for gauging the position of a product or company in the market place. The Boston Matrix was named after its inventors, the Boston Consulting Group.

The Boston Matrix is a two-by-two matrix measuring the relative market share for all the products in a company's portfolio on the horizontal axis (progressing from high to low) and the market growth rate for the products on the vertical axis (progressing from low to high). The lower left-hand quadrant contains the products with high market share but low growth: safe, highly profitable products known as cash cows. The star products in the upper left-hand quadrant have high growth and high market share. The upper right-hand quadrant contains the ‘question mark’ products, those with high growth but low market share. The lower right-hand quadrant shows those products with low growth and low market share. These products, not ones to be investing money in, are called ‘dogs’.