Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

Boston Consulting Group is a portfolio that is used on the four square chart that helps companies and people interested in knowing where there big gaming corporate stands. “Using the now-classic Boston Consulting Group (BCG) approach, a company classifies all its SBUs according to the growthshare matrix as shown in Figure 2.2. On the vertical axis, market growth rate provides a measure of market attractiveness. “ (Page 43 Armstrong & Kolter (2011) Marketing: An introduction 10^th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing). The four parts of the matrix is broken down into Star, Question Mark, Cash Cow and Dog. Star and Question Mark is the high points of the chart which means the game consoles is doing good in the market. For example, Apps and Computer games is the best example of stars in the BCG Growth-share matrix. Next there is Cash Cow and Dog. These are the low points of the chart which means that the game consoles are not really where they are suppose to be if they want to make it in the gaming market because they are out of date and something new is taking there place. For example, PS4 is a cash cow which is a low-growth, high-share businesses or products. These established and successful SBUs need less investment to hold their market share. http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/sources-the-upgraded-playstation-4-is-codenamed-ne/1100-5437/ Wii U is a dog because they never even had a chance to even try to stand there ground in the gaming market. The whole idea of playing a game with a stand on board and a hand controller that you could watch as you play was a stupendous idea. No one really wanted to have it in their homes or stores. “As time passes, SBUs change their positions in the growth-share matrix. Many SBUs start out as question marks and move into the star category if they succeed. They later become cash cows as market growth falls, then finally die off or turn into dogs toward the end of their life cycle. ”(Page 44, Armstrong & Kotler (2011). Marketing: An Introduction, 10th Ed. Prentice Hall Publishing).