keymodels
Cross, spider, comb and marimekko charts
How can cross, spider, comb and marimekko charts support strategic choice or positioning?
Contents
No, me neither, but they do have their uses. The three charts by those names are apt tools for displaying key success factors and how your firm rates.
Cross, spider, comb and Marimekko charts make different strategic comparisons visible. Together they can show positioning on selected attributes, performance across many criteria, the importance of those criteria and the interaction of market size with share.
When to use it
- Use the charts to compare product attributes, Assessing customer purchasing criteria or Deriving key success factors, selecting the display that matches the question.
Origins
This is a family of displays rather than one invented model. Cross plots and radar or spider charts grew from multivariate statistical graphics. John Hartigan and Beat Kleiner introduced the mosaic display underlying the Marimekko form in the early nineteen eighties, and Michael Friendly later expanded its statistical interpretation. “Marimekko,” often shortened to “Mekko,” evokes the rectangular patterns of the Finnish design company. The comb chart is a practical strategy display that places attribute performance beside attribute importance.
What it is
The memorable names hide four distinct visual jobs.
Each can express product attributes or purchasing criteria and compare the firm with alternatives.
A cross chart positions competing offers on two selected attributes; a more formal multivariate extension is multidimensional scaling.
A spider, radar or web chart compares several attributes around a common radial scale, often against a best-in-class profile.
A comb chart, sometimes described as a strategy canvas, presents similar scores linearly and can show the relative importance of each attribute more clearly.
A Mekko, Marimekko or area chart varies rectangle width and height, making it useful for displaying market size and market share simultaneously.
How to use it
Start with a decision and comparable evidence, then choose the chart. Figure D.1 positions Kenyan safari tours against competing holidays using adventure and security. It is illustrative rather than travel advice.
Figure D.2 expands the comparison into a spider chart. The shape makes relative strength in adventure and relative weakness in security immediately visible, but every axis must use the same direction and an explained scale.
Figure D.3 presents the same attributes as a comb chart and adds importance. Security matters greatly to travellers and, in the example following Islamist kidnappings, Kenyan safaris score below Amazon rainforest tours on that criterion.
Figure D.4 uses a Mekko chart for an adventure-tour market with two suppliers and three segments: Kenyan safari, Amazon rainforest and Borneo orangutan. Width represents segment size and the shaded proportion represents the company’s share, revealing its especially strong position in the larger Kenyan-safari segment.
Figure D.1: Cross chart of Kenyan-safari attributes
Adventure
Figure D.2: Spider chart of Kenyan-safari attributes
Weather
Security Facilities
Kenya safari Amazon rainforest
Adventure Price
Figure D.3: Comb chart of Kenyan-safari attributes
4 Key
3 Kenya
safari
Amazon
2 rainforest
1 Importance
Weather
Facilities
Price
Adventure Security
Product attributes
Figure D.4: Mekko chart of Kenyan-safari and other tours
100%
Market share
50%
Key
Your company Your competitor
Market size
Note: all four charts are illustrative and are not based on research.
Top practical tip
Choose the visual from the analytical question: two-attribute position, multi-attribute profile, performance plus importance, or market size plus share.
Top pitfall
A polished chart can legitimise weak judgement. Define every axis and scale, use comparable evidence and show uncertainty rather than implying unsupported precision.
Further reading
Hartigan, J.A. and Kleiner, B. “Mosaics for Contingency Tables,” in W.F. Eddy (ed.), Computer Science and Statistics: Proceedings of the Symposium on the Interface. New York: Springer.
Friendly, M. “A Brief History of the Mosaic Display,” Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics.
Tableau, “An Introduction to the Marimekko Chart: Many Colors and Many Names”.