For Further Research (Groups) The Boston Cosulting Group (BCG) matrix is used to classify products into one of four groups: stars, cash cows, question marks, and dogs. Think through some of your favorite products in the marketplace in many different categories—

cars, food, smartphones, video gaming systems, etc.

List at least three products you think belong in each of the categories and support these opinions with some facts.

Concepts: Apply Marketing Metrics You learned in the chapter that most marketers today feel pressure to measure (quantify) their level of success in market planning. They do this by setting and then measuring marketing objectives. One popular metric is market share, which in essence represents the percentage of total product category sales your products represent versus category competitors. For example, recent statistics indicate that Lenovo holds the number-

one market share in global PC sales with about 21 percent, topping HP with about 19 percent. Ranked third through fifth are Dell, Apple, and Acer, respectively.25 But, despite its common appearance in marketing objectives, market share has been heavily criticized as a metric. Often it can become more of a “bragging right” for a firm than a profit enhancer. This is because—especially in situations like the global PC market that is seeing heavy annual declines in sales as tablets and other devices replace PCs—investing in being number one in market share may deflect focus away from more lucrative new and growing product lines.