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uk

Strategic group mapping

“We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull,
while others are bright, some have weird names, but we have to learn to live in the
same box." Anonymous

The big idea

Strategic group mapping is a mechanism for considering your position in your sector,
field or market. Hunt coined the term ‘strategic group’ in 1972 when he noticed sub-
groups of businesses with similar characteristics in the same market. Michael Porter
then expanded the concept in the 1980s. There are a number of benefits to strategic
group mapping:

• It can help you identify who your direct and indirect competitors (or possible
partners) are
• It can illustrate how easy it might be to move from one strategic group to another
• It may help identify future opportunities or strategic problems
• It ensures you take your customers’ or beneficiaries’ views into account when
developing or assessing your strategy

Purpose
The purpose of strategic group mapping is to ensure you take the needs or wants of
your customers/beneficiaries into account. It encourages you to ask different
questions about your future strategy, relationships with other businesses in your
sector and your understanding of the people who ultimately benefit from your
products or services.

The tool
To use the strategic mapping approach, you need to follow a number of steps:

1. List the top five other players working in your field or sector

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2. Complete the following table (adapted from Bruce et al., 2008)

Player 1 Player 2 Player 3 Player 4 Player 5

What services do
they provide?

What products do
they offer?

Which beneficiary or
customer group do
they work with?

What is their
impact?

What might be their

plans for the future?

How might you

create greater
impact by
reconsidering your
relationship with
them?

3. Now think about the beneficiaries or customers for your services/products. What
do you think are the two most important aspects of what you do from their
perspective? It could be a personalised service, easy access, low cost and so on

4. Now using the two customer wants/needs you have determined above, draw a
2x2 matrix. Plot your business and the five other players you have considered
above onto the matrix. For example a games designer might create the following
map:

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High

P2 P5

P4
P3

Your
Quality business
of
graphics

P1

Low Interactivity High

5. Once you have mapped the various players in your field as well as your own
position, consider the following:
• Where are the gaps in provision?
• Why are the gaps there?
• Who should be filling them?

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• What potential is there for developing new services or products?
• How might you work with the other players to meet customer needs or wants?
• Where are the overlaps in provision?
• What are your options?
• What further research do you need to do?
• What factors will affect your response to beneficiary needs or wants?
6. Develop a competitive or collaborative strategy to ensure you are meeting
beneficiary needs and building a strong position within your strategic group

Take the next step

When you did your analysis of the other players, how much did you already know
about them? How much of this was based on assumption and how much did you
have hard evidence for? Were there any surprises?

Top tips
• To get an in-depth overview of your competitive and/or collaborative environment,
use this tool alongside a SWOT, PESTLE and Five Forces analysis (these tools are
also included in the toolkit)
• Think about how you might stay up to date with other key players in your sector or
market
• Once you have mapped the other players, draw arrows from each player to show
the direction you think they are moving in

References

Bruce, I., Coperman, C., Forrest, A., Lesirge, R., Palmer, P., & Patel, A. (2008). Tools
for Tomorrow: A Practical Guide to Strategic Planning for Voluntary Organisations.
London: Cass Business School/NCVO.