The 4 BCG Categories are not Always Stages

The 4 BCG Categories are not Always Stages

Note that it's not alway mandatory that a product goes through all of these four BCG stages.
For example, there are many cases where a product was launched and after that goes away as a 'Dog' or never makes it into any other stage.

		nikhil Student (MBA), India
	Not Making it to the Next BCG Stage Agreed. One reason for this could be technological obsolescence.

		Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	The 4 BCG Categories are Often, But not Always Stages I agree too. Indeed the 4 categories in the BCG Matrix (Question Mark ⇨ Star ⇨ Cash Cow ⇨ Dog) were typically (meant as) stages, but not necessary so. Another reason for this could be that in special circumstances, a product might "fall back" into one of the normally earlier stages. For example, what was believed to be a dog might turn out to become a massive cash cow after all. IBM mainframes is one such example. I believe they are still around and sold.