PROBLEMS OF ADAPTING THE BCG MATRIX FOR THE ASSORTMENT ANALYSIS

Abstract

At the current stage, the adapted BCG matrix is one of the most popular methods used for planning enterprises' product portfolios (product assortment). At the same time, when it comes to practice, it turns out that some aspects remain unorganized: the choice of basic indicators on the axes of the matrix is still ambiguous, there are disagreements regarding the methodology of their calculation and different approaches to drawing dividing lines. The article considers the problematic aspects of adapting the BCG matrix to the analysis of the company's product range. Our research has shown that the biggest problems with the adapted BСG matrix arise in relation to the calculation of the growth rates of assortment groups and the definition of the sector division lines. It was established that there are several approaches to calculating growth rate and share indicators, and their advantages and disadvantages are described. Approaches to establishing lines dividing the matrix into sectors are summarized, and their critical analysis is carried out. It is proposed to improve the “midpoint” method for sales shares by introducing an indicator of relative sales share, which shows the ratio of the sales share of an assortment group to the average sales share of an assortment group. The indicator of the relative share of sales will make it possible to determine the dividing line more reasonably and facilitate the interpretation of the value of the indicators on the axes relative to each other. To enrich the analysis of the BCG matrix, it is recommended to calculate a composite coefficient that gives a common characteristic of the assortment groups in terms of growth rates and in terms of share in sales at the same time, as well as on the basis of which product groups can be ranked. Further studies of the adapted BCG matrix may relate to the development of methodical approaches to the calculation of aggregated coefficients, with the inclusion of weight indices in the analysis, as well as the profitability index and other indicators that are important for the development of the assortment.