A cash cow is a business or a product that has a large market share in an industry with slow to little growth.  Cash cows usually require little reinvestment of their profits as they are not looking for growth and are only seeking to maintain profits.  The business is given the name cash cow because it is “milked” for its cash.

It is the goal of a business, and especially its marketing department, to transform their business or product into a star or a cash cow.

A cash cow will be found in the bottom left corner of a growth-share matrix where the growth rate is slow and the market share is large.