The product portfolio matrix to advance your marketing strategy

In all project or business management, at some point you will need to analyze your product portfolio as a team to find out, for example, how to allocate your company’s resources between its different business units, or which ones to invest in and which ones to discontinue. The BCG Matrix, created by the Boston Consulting Group, helps you prioritize actions and make strategic decisions as a team.

Together on your whiteboard, determine the position of each of the company’s products according to market growth, revenue generated and their competitive advantages. Then, compare this data to visually identify the various strategic business units that are profitable or not and new units that require significant investment.

The result? With the BCG matrix, you can see whether your product portfolio is balanced, to prioritize your strategic objectives more efficiently.

What are the benefits of a BCG Matrix workshop?

Compared to other marketing matrices, the BCG matrix has several advantages. Companies can use it to analyze both the position of the company in the market and the position of its products or services, which are issues that come up sooner or later during project management.

It can also be used to make decisions about the company's resource allocation based on established facts rather than projections. This can make your meetings easier and improve teamwork when different departments are working in a cross-functional way on the same product or service.

Finally, it helps you allocate the right resources to the right products or services and the right markets, to increase your market penetration and diversification.

Creating a BCG matrix with Klaxoon's template

Analyzing business units

Start by inviting your team members to your whiteboard. Together, list all the business units and products you will be looking at. Review them according to 3 criteria: life cycle, sales and competition.

• To specify the life cycle, use the suggested color code.
• To indicate sales volume, increase or decrease the size of the idea (do this while comparing with the other ideas on the Board).

To indicate the level of competition, add a higher or lower number in Dimensions, which are custom fields at the bottom of an idea.

Comparing data

Now, start brainstorming to compare all this data. Decide together where to position each business unit on the matrix within the two axes: 

• Its growth rate, i.e. market activity
• Its relative market share, i.e. its competitive advantage

The two axes create 4 quadrants that each represent a different type of product or business:

• Dogs: these are products in the decline stage, sometimes also new products that are not performing well. It’s up to you to decide whether or not to discontinue them, because they can sometimes retain customer loyalty.
• Question marks: these are potential growth products, whose market share is on the rise and for which the company’s supply is insufficient or non-existent. It’s up to you to decide what strategic investment decisions to make, by assessing potential future market share.
• Stars: these products sell very well and their market share is growing. It’s up to you to decide what you need to do to have as many products or business units as possible in this category.‍
• Cash cows: these are the products for which you have a good market share but little or no growth opportunities. They are a sign of your company's good health and influence your reputation. It’s up to you assess their risk to become dead weights or not.

Analyzing the matrix

To decide together whether to invest in a product or discontinue a business unit, ask yourself questions under the relevant ideas using the Question tool. All your team members have to do is double click on the Question to respond, and the results will appear automatically on the whiteboard. A surefire way to boost your project management!