BCG Matrix Maker
Enter each product's revenue, market growth rate, and relative market share — or your share and the largest rival's — and get a growth-share matrix with stars, question marks, cash cows, and dogs, bubbles sized by revenue, and a product table. Download the chart as SVG or PNG. Free, no sign-up.
Separate with commas, tabs or semicolons — use semicolons if your numbers have decimal commas. A first line without numbers is read as a header. Growth may be negative; revenue may be left blank.
Dividing lines
Convention: 1.0 — level with the largest competitor.
Convention: 10% a year. Use your market's own average if growth is slow.
Labels
Where your products fall
7 products plotted
1 — 13% of revenue
Stars
2 — 13% of revenue
Question marks
2 — 59% of revenue
Cash cows
2 — 16% of revenue
Dogs
Product table
| Product | Quadrant | Relative share | Growth | Revenue | % of revenue | Textbook response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oat Drinks | Stars | 1.8 | 16% | 150 | 12.9% | Invest to keep the lead |
| Frozen Meals | Cash cows | 2.4 | 3% | 420 | 36.2% | Maintain and harvest cash |
| Canned Soup | Cash cows | 1.3 | 1% | 260 | 22.4% | Maintain and harvest cash |
| Protein Snacks | Question marks | 0.4 | 14% | 90 | 7.8% | Invest selectively or divest |
| Meal Kits | Question marks | 0.15 | 22% | 60 | 5.2% | Invest selectively or divest |
| Tinned Fish | Dogs | 0.3 | -2% | 70 | 6% | Harvest or divest |
| Plain Biscuits | Dogs | 0.6 | 0% | 110 | 9.5% | Harvest or divest |
The responses are the usual textbook readings of each quadrant. They are prompts for a discussion, not instructions: the matrix says nothing about margins, strategy fit or how far the market can still grow.
How to Use the BCG Matrix Maker
- 1. Choose how you know the share. If you already have relative market share, pick that option. If you have market shares in percent, pick the other and enter your share and the largest rival's; the tool divides one by the other.
- 2. Enter one product per line. Name, revenue, market growth in percent a year, and the share figure or figures. Growth can be negative, and revenue can be left blank if you only want the positions.
- 3. Check the dividing lines. They start at the textbook conventions — relative share 1.0 and growth of 10% a year. Change them if your market grows slowly or your course uses other cut-offs.
- 4. Read the chart and the table. Every product gets a quadrant, a share of total revenue, and the textbook response. Download the chart as SVG or PNG, copy the table as spreadsheet text, or print the page.
How to Read the Growth-Share Matrix
| Quadrant | Relative share | Market growth | Textbook reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | High (left) | High (top) | Lead a growing market; usually need cash to keep up, and become cash cows when growth slows |
| Question marks | Low (right) | High (top) | Growing market, small position; need cash and may never become leaders |
| Cash cows | High (left) | Low (bottom) | Leaders in mature markets; usually earn more cash than they need |
| Dogs | Low (right) | Low (bottom) | Little growth to gain and little cash to earn; candidates to harvest or sell |
The matrix comes from the Boston Consulting Group in the late 1960s and became widely known through Bruce Henderson's essay “The Product Portfolio” (BCG, 1970). His point was about cash: growing products consume it, and mature market leaders generate it, so a company should fund its growth from the second group. Henderson's essay calls the low-share, slow-growth products “pets”; “dogs” is the name textbooks later settled on.
Relative Market Share
Relative market share is your share divided by the share of your largest competitor. It is not your share of the whole market: a product with 30% of a market whose next-biggest rival has 15% has a relative share of 2.0, while a product with 20% against a rival with 40% has 0.5. A value of 1.0 means level with the largest rival. The axis is logarithmic because a jump from 0.5 to 1 is as significant as one from 1 to 2, and it runs with the highest share on the left, which is how BCG's own charts are drawn.
| Your share | Largest rival's share | Relative share |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | 15% | 2.0 |
| 12% | 12% | 1.0 |
| 20% | 40% | 0.5 |
Worked Example
The example loaded in the tool is a made-up food company with seven products and total revenue of 1,160. Frozen Meals and Canned Soup are cash cows, together 680 of revenue or 58.6% of the total. Oat Drinks is the only star, with 150 (12.9%). Protein Snacks and Meal Kits are question marks, 150 together (12.9%), and Tinned Fish and Plain Biscuits are dogs, 180 together (15.5%). Read as Henderson would, the company's cash comes from two mature products, and the question is whether it can fund the one star and choose which of the two question marks to back. The figures are invented for teaching.
Limits of the Matrix
- The market definition decides everything. Draw the market narrowly and a product leads it; draw it broadly and the same product is a dog. State your market definition in your write-up.
- Share is not profit. A high-share product in a mature market is not automatically profitable, and a dog can be a profitable niche or a product that keeps other products selling.
- Two axes are a simplification. The matrix ignores margins, synergies between products, risk, and how long a market will keep growing.
- The cut-offs are conventions. 10% growth and a relative share of 1.0 are common choices, not laws. Show how your conclusion changes if you move them.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the BCG matrix?
- A chart that places each product or business unit by its market growth rate and its relative market share, splitting them into stars, question marks, cash cows, and dogs. It was developed at the Boston Consulting Group and is used to discuss where a company's cash comes from and where to invest it.
- How do you calculate relative market share?
- Divide your product's market share by the market share of your largest competitor. With 30% against a rival's 15%, relative share is 2.0; with 20% against 40% it is 0.5. In this tool you can enter either the ratio itself or both shares.
- What growth rate counts as high on a BCG matrix?
- The common textbook cut-off is 10% a year, which Henderson's 1970 essay gives as the usual dividing line. It is a convention. In a slow-growing economy or industry, use the market's average growth instead, and say so in your analysis.
- Why is the relative share axis backwards?
- BCG's charts put the highest relative share on the left, so that stars and cash cows sit on the left and the strongest position reads first. The scale is logarithmic. The tool follows that layout.
- What do the bubble sizes mean?
- Each bubble's area is proportional to the product's revenue, so a product with twice the revenue has twice the area. Very small products are drawn at a minimum size so they stay visible, and a product with no revenue entered gets a fixed small bubble.
- How do I cite the BCG matrix?
- Cite the source you actually used: your textbook, or Henderson's “The Product Portfolio”, published by the Boston Consulting Group in 1970 and available on BCG's website. Follow your course's style for the form of the reference, and cite the data behind your own chart separately.
- Is the BCG matrix still used?
- Yes, mainly as a teaching tool and a conversation starter in portfolio reviews. Its limits are well known: it reduces strategy to two axes and depends on how the market is defined, so use it alongside other analyses rather than instead of them.