Publicly traded companies are required by law to complete an annual report, often referred to as a 10K report as is submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This report contains a vast amount of information, it is often over 100 pages, and will speak to the company's target market. It will identify key advertising campaigns, 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.
**If your brand is not publicly traded they are not required to publish a 10K report, please move on to 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.
Alternatively, search Google for 10K report AND Coach AND 2023 to get a more direct link to the report.
Other sources of 10K and Annual Reports:
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.
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.
