Publicly traded companies are required by law to complete an annual report, often referred to as a 10K report, which is submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This report contains a vast amount of information, often over 100 pages, and explains the company's target market. It identifies key advertising campaigns, and the locations of new stores and/or online presence. Students can locate a company's 10K report via the MU databases or on the company's website. Details are below.
NOTE: If your brand is not publicly traded they are not required to publish a 10K report. See the other tabs in this guide for more information.
You can visit your company's website to access their 10K report. You will likely need to scroll to the very bottom of the page and look for a link title 'Investor Information' or 'Financial Information.' This may also appear under the 'About Us' section of a website.
Another option is to search your favorite search engine for 10K report AND company name AND current year.
Other sources of 10K and Annual Reports:
Market Atlas provides tools for both interactive online research and easy predefined report access. These tools and reports are reflected across multiple product modules including Company, Sustainability, Industry, Country and Economic analysis. This database covers more than 50,000 US and foreign public companies, with current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, annual reports, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, long-term debt, capital stock, and insider trading.
You can search Google by typing 10K report AND the name of the company, as shown in the image below:
After you have located the 10K report download the pdf so you will be able to perform a keyword search. 10K reports are usually over 100 pages so performing a keyword search in the document will save you time and help you locate the information you need efficiently.
To find a word or phrase in a document on a PC, press the Ctrl and F keys and a search bar will appear. On a Mac, press the ⌘ and F keys.
I recommend starting with a search for the term target. The majority of information you will come across will be in the sections about advertising and marketing since that is where companies speak most often about their target markets. Another good approach is to search for the following terms: marketing, advertising, customer, consumer.
Market Atlas provides tools for both interactive online research and easy predefined report access. These tools and reports are reflected across multiple product modules including Company, Sustainability, Industry, Country and Economic analysis. This database covers more than 50,000 US and foreign public companies, with current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, annual reports, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, long-term debt, capital stock, and insider trading.
1. Search for your company by name or stock ticker
2. In the results, select the 'Filings' tab at the top center
3. Find the most recent 10-K / Annual report
If you found the 10K report via Mergent Market Atlas follow this:
Company Name. (year, month date). Form 10‐K. Retrieved from Mergent Market Atlas database.
Example:
McDonald's Corporation. (2021, December 1). Form 10‐K. Retrieved from Mergent Market Atlas database.
If you found the 10K report on the company's website follow this:
Company Name. (year). Title. Retrieved from url of company Web site.
Example:
Nike Inc. (2020). Nike Inc.: 2020 annual report. Retrieved from https://investors.nike.com/investors/news-events-and-reports/default.aspx
More examples can be found at the APA Citations for Business Sources at Ohio Wesleyan University
Here is a sample 10K report from Coach Inc.
Below are some sample key word searches in Coach's 10K report to help you get an idea of the type of information you can expect to locate.
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