The St. Gallen Business
Model Navigator
Oliver Gassmann,
Karolin Frankenberger,
Michaela Csik
Working Paper
University of St.Gallen
, The 55 Business Model Patterns as Overview
No Pattern Affected Exemplary companies Pattern description
name BM
compo-
nents
1 What Ryanair (1985), SAP The core offering is priced competitively, but there are
ADD-ON (1992), Sega (1998)
Value numerous extras that drive the final price up. In the end, the
costumer pays more than he or she initially assumed. Cus-
tomers benefit from a variable offer, which they can adapt
to their specific needs.
2 How Amazon Store (1995), The focus lies in supporting others to successfully sell
AFFILIATION Cybererotica (1994),
Value products and directly benefit from successful transactions.
CDnow (1994), Pinterest Affiliates usually profit from some kind of pay-per-sale or
(2010)
pay-per-display compensation. The company, on the other
hand, is able to gain access to a more diverse potential
customer base without additional active sales or marketing
efforts.
3 Who Six Flags (1961), The Aikido is a Japanese martial art in which the strength of an
AIKIDO Body Shop (1976),
What attacker is used against him or her. As a business model,
Swatch (1983), Cirque du
Value Aikido allows a company to offer something diametrically
Soleil (1984), Nintendo
(2006) opposed to the image and mindset of the competition. This
new value proposition attracts customers who prefer ideas
or concepts opposed to the mainstream.
4 What eBay (1995), Winebid Auctioning means selling a product or service to the high-
AUCTION (1996), Priceline (1997),
Value est bidder. The final price is achieved when a particular end
Google (1998), Elance time of the auction is reached or when no higher offers are
(2006), Zopa (2005),
MyHammer (2005) received. This allows the company to sell at the highest
price acceptable to the customer. The customer benefits
from the opportunity to influence the price of a product.
5 What Procter & Gamble (1970), Barter is a method of exchange in which goods are given
BARTER Pepsi (1972), Lufthansa
Value away to customers without the transaction of actual money.
(1993), Magnolia Hotels In return, they provide something of value to the sponsor-
(2007), Pay with a Tweet
(2010) ing organisation. The exchange does not have to show any
direct connection and is valued differently by each party.
6 How American Express (1891), In the Cash Machine concept, the customer pays upfront for
CASH MA- Dell (1984), Amazon
CHINE Value the products sold to the customer before the company is
Store (1995), PayPal able to cover the associated expenses. This results in in-
(1998), Blacksocks
(1999), MyFab (2008), creased liquidity which can be used to amortise debt or to
Groupon (2008) fund investments in other areas.
7 How Shell (1930), In this model, services or products from a formerly exclud-
CROSS IKEA(1956), Tchibo
SELLING What ed industry are added to the offerings, thus leveraging
(1973), Aldi (1986),
Value existing key skills and resources. In retail especially, com-
SANIFAIR (2003)
panies can easily provide additional products and offerings
that are not linked to the main industry on which they were
previously focused. Thus, additional revenue can be gener-
ated with relatively few changes to the existing infrastruc-
ture and assets, since more potential customer needs are
met.
8 How Marillion (1997), Cassava A product, project or entire start-up is financed by a crowd
CROWD- Films (1998), Diaspora
FUNDING Value of investors who wish to support the underlying idea, typi-
(2010), Brainpool (2011), cally via the Internet. If the critical mass is achieved, the
Pebble Technology
(2012) idea will be realized and investors receive special benefits,
usually proportionate to the amount of money they provid-
ed.
