How To Present Your Market Research Results And Reports In An Efficient Way
Table of Contents
1) What Is A Market Research Report?
2) Market Research Reports Examples
3) Why Do You Need Market Research Reports
4) How To Present Market Research Analysis Results?
5) Types Of Market Research Reports
6) Challenges & Mistakes Market Research Reports
Market research analyses are the go-to solution for many professionals, and for good reason: they save time, offer fresh insights, and provide clarity on your focus business market. In turn, market research reports will help you to refine and polish your strategy. Plus, a well-crafted market research report will give your work more credibility while adding weight to any marketing recommendations you offer a client or executive.
But, while this is the case, today’s business world still lacks a way to present market-based research results efficiently. The static, antiquated nature of PowerPoint makes it a bad choice for presenting market research discoveries, yet it is still widely used to present results.
Fortunately, things are moving in the right direction. There are online data visualization tools that make it easy and fast to build powerful market research dashboards. They come in handy to manage the outcomes, but also the most important aspect of any analysis: the presentation of said outcomes, without which it becomes hard to make accurate, sound decisions.
Here, we consider the benefits of conducting research analyses while looking at how to write and present market research reports while exploring the value of market research analysis, and, ultimately, getting the very most from your research results by using professional market research software .
Let’s get started.
What Is a Market Research Report?
A market research report is an online reporting tool used to analyze the public perception or viability of a company, product, or service. These reports contain valuable and digestible information like customer survey responses, social, economic, and geographical insights.
On a typical market research results example, you can interact with valuable trends, and gain an insight into consumer behavior, and visualizations that will empower you to conduct effective competitor analysis. Rather than adding streams of tenuous data to a static spreadsheet, a full market research report template brings the outcomes of market-driven research to life, giving users a data analysis tool to create actionable strategies from a range of consumer-driven insights.
With digital market analysis reports, you can make your business more intelligent, more efficient, and, ultimately, meet the needs of your target audience head-on. This, in turn, will accelerate your commercial success significantly.
How To Present Your Results: 4 Essential Market Research Report Templates
When it comes to sharing rafts of invaluable information, research dashboards are invaluable.
Any market analysis report example worth its salt will allow everyone to get a firm grip on their results and discoveries on a single page, with ease. These dynamic online dashboards also boast interactive features that empower the user to drill down deep into specific pockets of information while changing demographic parameters, including gender, age, and region, filtering the results swiftly to focus on the most relevant information for the task at hand.
These four market research reports examples are different but equally essential and cover key elements required for market survey report success. You can also modify each, and use it as a client dashboard .
While there are numerous types of dashboards that you can choose from to adjust and optimize your results, we have selected the top 3 that will tell you more about the story behind them. Let’s take a closer look.
1. Market Research Report: Brand Analysis
Our first example shares the results of a brand study. To do so, a survey has been performed on a sample of 1333 people, information that we can see in detail on the left side of the board, summarizing the gender, age groups, and geolocation.
**click to enlarge**
On the center of the dashboard, we can see the market-driven research discoveries concerning first the brand awareness with and without help, as well as themes and celebrity suggestions, to know which image the audience associates with the brand.
Such dashboards are extremely convenient to share the most important information in a snapshot. Besides, being interactive (but it cannot be seen on an image), it is even easier to filter the results according to certain criteria without needing to produce dozens of PowerPoint slides. For instance, I could easily filter the data by choosing only the female answers, or only the people aged between 25 and 34, or only the 25-34 males if that is my target audience.
Primary KPIs:
a) Unaided Brand Awareness
The first market research KPI in this most powerful report example comes in the form of unaided brand awareness. Presented in a logical line-style chart, this particular market research report sample KPI is invaluable, as it will give you a clear-cut insight into how people affiliate your brand within their niche.
As you can see from our example, based on a specific survey question, you can see how your brand stacks up against your competitors in terms of awareness. Based on these outcomes, you can formulate strategies to help you stand out more in your sector and, ultimately, expand your audience.
b) Aided Brand Awareness
This market survey report sample KPI focuses on aided brand awareness. A visualization that offers a great deal of insight into which brands come to mind in certain niches or categories, here, you will find out which campaigns and messaging your target consumers are paying attention to and engaging with.
By gaining access to this level of insight, you can conduct effective competitor research and gain valuable inspiration for your products, promotional campaigns, and marketing messages.
c) Brand image
When it comes to research reporting, understanding how others perceive your brand is one of the most golden pieces of information you could acquire. If you know how people feel about your brand image, you can make informed and very specific actions that will enhance the way people view and interact with your business.
By asking a focused question, this most visual of KPIs will give you a definitive idea of whether respondents agree, disagree, or are undecided on particular descriptions or perceptions related to your brand image. If you’re looking to present yourself and your message in a certain way (reliable, charming, spirited, etc.), you can see how you stack up against the competition and find out if you need to tweak your imagery or tone of voice - invaluable information for any modern business.
d) Celebrity analysis
This indicator is a powerful part of our research KPI dashboard on top, as it will give you a direct insight into the celebrities, influencers, or public figures that your most valued consumers consider when thinking about (or interacting with) your brand.
Displayed in a digestible bar chart-style format, this useful metric will not only give you a solid idea of how your brand messaging is perceived by consumers (depending on the type of celebrity they associate with your brand) but also guide you on which celebrities or influencers you should contact.
By working with the right influencers in your niche, you will boost the impact and reach of your marketing campaigns significantly, improving your commercial awareness in the process. And this is the market research report KPI that will make it happen.
2. Market Research Results On Customer Satisfaction
Here we have some of the most important data a company should care about: their already-existing customers and their perception of the relationship they have with the brand. It is crucial when we know that it is 5 times more expensive to acquire a new consumer than to retain one.
This is why tracking metrics like the customer effort score or the net promoter score (how likely are consumers to recommend your products and services) is essential, especially over time. You need to improve these scores to have happy customers who will always have a much bigger impact on their friends and relatives than any of your amazing ad campaigns. Looking at other satisfaction indicators like the quality, the pricing, and design, or the service they received is also a best practice: you want a global view of your performance when it comes to customer satisfaction metrics .
Such research results reports are a great tool for managers who do not have much time and hence need to use them effectively. Thanks to these dashboards, they can control data for long-running projects at any time.
Primary KPIs :
a) Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Another pivotal part of any informative market research presentation, your NPS score will tell you how likely a customer is to recommend your brand to their peers.
Centered on overall customer satisfaction, your NPS Score can cover the functions and output of many departments, including marketing, sales, customer service but also serve as a building block for a call center dashboard . When you’re considering how to present market research effectively, this balanced KPI offers a masterclass. It’s logical, it has a cohesive color scheme, and it offers access to vital information at a swift glance. With an NPS Score, customers are split into three categories: promoters (those scoring your service 9 or 10), passives (those scoring your service 7 or 8), and detractors (those scoring your service 0 to 6). The aim of the game is to gain more promoters. By gaining an accurate snapshot of your NPS Score, you can create intelligent strategies that will boost your results over time.
b) Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
The next in our examples of market research reports KPIs comes in the form of the CSAT. The vast majority of consumers that have a bad experience will not return. Honing in on your CSAT is essential if you want to keep your audience happy and encourage long-term consumer loyalty.
This magnificent, full market research report KPI will show you how satisfied customers are with specific elements of your products or service. Getting to grips with these scores will allow you to pinpoint very specific issues while capitalizing on your existing strengths. As a result, you will be able to take measures to improve your CSAT score while sharing positive testimonials on your social media platforms and website to build trust.
c) Customer Effort Score (CES)
When it comes to presenting market research findings, keeping track of your CES Score is essential. The CES Score KPI will give you instant access to information on how easy or difficult your audience finds it to interact or discover your company based on a simple scale of one to ten.
By getting a clear-cut gauge of how your customers find engagement with your brand, you can iron out any weaknesses in your user experience (UX) offerings while spotting any friction, bottlenecks, or misleading messaging. In doing so, you can boost your CES score, satisfy your audience, and boost your bottom line.
3. Market Research Results On Product Innovation
This final market-driven research example report focuses on the product itself, and its innovation. It is a useful report for future product development and market potential, as well as pricing decisions.
Using the same sample of surveyed people as for the first market-focused analytical report , they answer questions about their potential usage and purchase of the said product. It is good primary feedback on how the market would receive the new product you would launch. Then comes the willingness to pay, which helps in setting a price range that will not be too cheap to be trusted, nor too expensive for what it is. That will be the main information for your pricing strategy.
a) Usage Intention
The first of our product innovation KPI-based market research examples comes in the form of usage intention. When you’re considering how to write a market research report, including metrics centered on consumer intent is critical.
This simple yet effective visualization will allow you to understand not only how users see your product but also whether they prefer previous models or competitor versions . While you shouldn’t base all of your product-based research on this KPI, it is very valuable, and you should use it to your advantage frequently.
b) Purchase Intention
Another aspect to consider when looking at how to present market research data is your audience’s willingness or motivation to purchase your product. Offering percentage-based information, this effective KPI provides a wealth of at-a-glance information that will help you make accurate forecasts centered on your product and service offerings.
Analyzing this information regularly will give you the confidence and direction to develop strategies that will steer you to a more prosperous future, meeting the ever-changing needs of your audience on an ongoing basis.
c) Willingness To Pay (WPS)
Our final market research example KPI is based on how willing customers are to pay for a particular service or product based on a specific set of parameters. This dynamic visualization, represented in an easy-to-follow pie chart, will allow you to realign the value of your product (USPs, functions, etc.) while setting price points that are most likely to result in conversions. This is a market research presentation template that every modern organization should use to its advantage.
4. Customer demographics dashboard
This particular market research report template, generated with a modern dashboard creator , is a powerful tool, as it displays a cohesive mix of key demographic information in one intuitive space.
By breaking down these deep pockets of consumer-centric information, you can gain the power to develop more impactful customer communications while personalizing every aspect of your target audience’s journey across every channel or touchpoint. As a result, you can transform theoretical insights into actionable strategies that will result in significant commercial growth.
Every section of this responsive marketing research report works in unison to build a profile of your core audience in a way that will guide your company’s consumer-facing strategies with confidence. With in-depth visuals based on gender, education level, and tech adoption, you have everything you need to speak directly to your audience at your fingertips.
Let’s look at the key performance indicators (KPIs) of this invaluable market research report example in more detail.
a) Customer By Gender
This market research data KPI is highly visual and offers a clear-cut representation of your company’s gender share over time. By gaining access to this vital information, you can deliver a more personalized experience to specific segments of your audience while ensuring your messaging is fair, engaging, and inclusive.
b) Customers by education level
The next market analysis report KPI provides a logical breakdown of your customers’ level of education. By using this as a demographic marker, you can refine your products to suit the needs of your audience while crafting your content in a way that truly resonates with different customer groups.
c) Customers by technology adoption
Particularly valuable if you’re a company that sells tech goods or services, this linear KPI will show you where your customers are in terms of technological know-how or usage. By getting to grips with this information over time, you can develop your products or services in a way that offers direct value to your consumers while making your launches or promotions as successful as possible.
d) Customer age groups
By understanding your customers’ age distribution in detail, you can gain a deep understanding of their preferences. And that’s exactly what this market research report sample KPI does. Presented in a bar chart format, this KPI will give you a full breakdown of your customers’ age ranges, allowing you to build detailed buyer personas and segment your audience effectively.
Why Do You Need Market Research Reports?
As the adage goes, “look before you leap“ – and that is exactly what a research report is here for. As the headlights of a car, they will show you the pitfalls and fast lanes on your road to success: likes and dislikes of a specific market segment in a certain geographical area, their expectations, and readiness. Among other things, a research report will let you:
- Get a holistic view of the market : learn more about the target market and understand the various factors involved in the buying decisions. Getting a broader view of the market lets you benchmark other companies you do not focus on. This, in turn, will empower you to gather the industry data that counts most. This brings us to our next point.
- Curate industry information with momentum: whether you’re looking to rebrand, improve on an existing service, or launch a new product, time is of the essence. By working with the best market research reports created with modern BI reporting tools , you can visualize your discoveries and data, formatting them in a way that not only unearths hidden insights but also tells a story - a narrative that will gain a deeper level of understanding into your niche or industry. The features and functionality of a market analysis report will help you grasp the information that is most valuable to your organization swiftly, pushing you ahead of the pack in the process.
- Validate internal research: doing the internal analysis is one thing, but double-checking with a third party also greatly helps in not getting blinded by your own data.
- Use actionable data and make informed decisions: once you understand consumer behavior as well as the market, your competitors, and the issues that will affect the industry in the future, you are better armed to position your brand. Combining all of it with the quantitative data collected will allow you for more successful product development. To learn more about different methods, we suggest you read our guide on data analysis techniques .
- Strategic planning: when you want to map out big-picture organizational goals, launch a new product development, plan a geographic market expansion, or even a merger and acquisition – all of this strategic thinking needs solid foundations to fulfill the variety of challenges that come along.
- Consistency across the board: collecting, presenting, and analyzing your market research data in a way that’s smarter, more interactive, and more cohesive will ensure your customer communications, marketing campaigns, user journey, and offerings meet your audience’s needs consistently across the board. The result? Faster growth, increased customer loyalty, and more profit.
- Better communication: the right market research analysis template (or templates) will empower everyone in the company with access to valuable information - the kind that is relevant and comprehensible. When everyone is moving to the beat of the same drum, they will collaborate more effectively and, ultimately, push the venture forward thanks to powerful online data analysis techniques.
- Centralization: building on the last point, using a powerful market research report template in the form of a business intelligence dashboard , will make presenting your findings to external stakeholders and clients far more effective, as you can showcase a wealth of metrics, information, insights, and invaluable feedback from one centralized, highly visual interactive screen.
- Brand reputation: in the digital age, brand reputation is everything. By making vital improvements in all of the key areas above, you will meet your customers’ needs head-on with consistency while finding innovative ways to stand out from your competitors. These are the key ingredients of long-term success.
How To Present Market Research Analysis Results?
Here we look at how you should present your research reports, considering the steps it takes to connect with the outcomes you need to succeed:
- Hone in on your research:
When looking at how to source consumer research in a presentation, you should focus on two areas: primary and secondary research. Primary research comes from your internal data, monitoring existing organizational practices, the effectiveness of sales, and the tools used for communication, for instance. Primary research also assesses market competition by evaluating the company plans of the competitors. Secondary research focuses on existing data collected by a third party, information used to perform benchmarking, and market analysis. Such metrics help in deciding which market segments are the ones the company should focus its efforts on or where the brand is standing in the minds of consumers. Before you start the reporting process, you should set your goals, segmenting your research into primary and secondary segments to get to grips with the kind of information you need to work with to achieve effective results.
- Segment your customers:
To give your market research report data more context, you should segment your customers into different groups according to the preferences outlined in the survey or feedback results or by examining behavioral or demographic data.
If you segment your customers, you can tailor your market research and analysis reports to display only the information, charts, or graphics that will provide actionable insights into their wants, needs, or industry-based pain points.
- Identify your stakeholders:
Once you’ve drilled down into your market research analysis and segmented your consumer groups, it’s important to consider the key stakeholders within the organization that will benefit from your information the most.
By looking at both internal and external stakeholders, you will give your results a path to effective presentation, gaining the tools to understand which areas of feedback or data are most valuable, as well as most redundant. As a result, you will ensure your results data is concise and meets the exact information needs of every stakeholder involved in the process.
- Set your KPIs:
To start with, keep in mind that your reports should be concise and accurate - straight to the point without omitting any essential information. Work to ensure that your insights is clean and organized, with participants grouped into relevant categories (demographics, profession, industry, education, etc.). Once you’ve organized your research, set your goals, and cleaned your data, you should set your KPIs to ensure your report is populated with the right visualizations to get the job done. Explore our full library of interactive KPI examples for inspiration.
- Produce your summary:
To complement your previous efforts, writing an executive summary of one or two pages that will explain the general idea of the report is advisable. Then come the usual body parts:
- An introduction providing background information, target audience, and objectives;
- The qualitative research describes the participants in the research and why they are relevant to the business;
- The survey research outlining the questions asked and answered;
- A summary of the insights and metrics used to draw the conclusions, the research methods chosen, and why;
- A presentation of the findings based on the research you conducted and an in-depth explanation of these conclusions.
- Use a mix of visualizations:
When presenting your market research results and discoveries, you should aim to use a balanced mix of text, graphs, charts, and interactive visualizations.
Using your summary as a guide, you should decide which type of visualization will present each specific piece of market research data most effectively (often, the easier to understand and more accessible, the better).
Doing so will allow you to create a story that will put your research information into a living, breathing context, providing a level of insight you need to transform industry, competitor, or consumer info or feedback into actionable strategies and initiatives.
- Use professional data dashboards:
To optimize your market research-centric data and discoveries, you must work with a dynamic business dashboard . Not only are modern dashboards presentable and customizable, but they will offer you past, predictive, and real-time insights that are accurate, interactive, and yield long-lasting results.
All market research report companies or businesses gathering industry or consumer-based information will benefit from professional data dashboards, as they offer a highly powerful means of presenting your data in a way that everyone can understand. And when that happens, everyone wins.
Did you know? The interactive nature of modern dashboards like datapine also offers the ability to quickly filter specific pockets of information with ease, offering swift access to invaluable insights.
- Know your design essentials
When you’re presenting your market research reports sample to internal or external stakeholders, having a firm grasp on fundamental design principles will make your metrics and insights far more persuasive and compelling.
By arranging your metrics in a balanced and logical format, you can guide users towards key pockets of information exactly when they need it. In turn, this will improve decision-making as well as navigation, making your reports as impactful as possible.
For essential tips, read our 23 dashboard design principles & best practices to enhance your data analysis.
- Keep on improving & evolving
Each time you gather or gain new marketing research reports or market research report intel, you should aim to refine your existing dashboards to reflect the ever-changing landscape around you.
If you update your reports and dashboards according to the new research you conduct and new insights you connect with, you will squeeze maximum value from your metrics, enjoying consistent development in the process.
Types of Market Research Reports: Primary & Secondary Research
With so many market research examples and such little time, knowing how to best present your insights under pressure can prove tricky.
To squeeze every last drop of value from your market research information and empower everyone with access to the right information, you should arrange your information into two main groups: primary research and secondary research.
A. Primary research
Primary research is based on the acquisition of direct or first-hand information related to your industry or sector and the customers linked to it.
Exploratory primary research is an initial form of information collection where your team might set out to identify potential issues, opportunities, and pain points related to your business or industry. This type of research is usually carried out in the form of general surveys or open-ended consumer Q&As.
Specific primary research is definitive with information gathered based on the issues, information, opportunities, or pain points your business has already uncovered. When carrying out this kind of research, you can drill down into a specific segment of your customers and seek answers to the opportunities, issues, or pain points in question.
When you’re conducting primary research to feed into your market research reporting efforts, it’s important to find reliable information sources. The most effective primary research sources include:
- Consumer-based statistical data
- Social media content
- Polls and Q&A
- Trend-based insights
- Competitor research
- First-hand interviews
B. Secondary research
Secondary research refers to every strand of relevant data or public records you have to gain a deeper insight into your market and target consumers. These sources include the trend reports, market stats, industry-centric content, and sales insights you have at your disposal. Secondary research is an effective way of gathering valuable intelligence about your competitors.
You can gather very precise, insightful secondary market research data from:
- Public records and resources like Census data, governmental reports, or labor stats
- Commercial data resources like Gartner, Statista, or Forrester
- Articles, documentaries, and interview transcripts
Another essential branch of both primary and secondary research is internal intelligence. When it comes to efficient market research reporting examples that will benefit your organization, looking inwards is a powerful move.
Existing sales, demographic, or marketing performance insights will lead you to valuable conclusions. Curating internal information will ensure your market research discoveries are well-rounded while helping you connect with the information that will ultimately give you a panoramic view of your target market.
By understanding both types of research and how they can offer value to your business, you can carefully choose the right informational sources, gather a wide range of intelligence related to your specific niche, and, ultimately, choose the right market research report sample for your specific needs.
If you tailor your market research report format to the type of research you conduct, you will present your visualizations in a way that provides the right people with the right insights, rather than throwing bundles of facts and figures on the wall, hoping that some of them stick.
Taking ample time to explore a range of primary as well as secondary sources will give your discoveries genuine context. By doing so, you will have a wealth of actionable consumer and competitor insights at your disposal at every stage of your organization’s development (a priceless weapon in an increasingly competitive digital age).
Dynamic market research is the cornerstone of business development, and a dashboard builder is the vessel that brings these all-important insights to life. Once you get into that mindset, you will ensure that your research results always deliver maximum value.
Common Challenges & Mistakes Of Market Research Reporting & Analysis
We’ve explored different types of market research analysis examples and considered how to conduct effective research. Now, it’s time to look at the key mistakes of market research reporting. Let’s start with the mistakes.
The mistakes
One of the biggest mistakes that stunt the success of a company’s market research efforts is strategy. Without taking the time to gather an adequate mix of insights from various sources and define your key aims or goals, your processes will become disjointed. You will also suffer from a severe lack of organizational vision.
For your market research-centric strategy to work, everyone within the company must be on the same page. Your core aims and objectives must align throughout the business, and everyone must be clear on their specific role. If you make the effort to craft a collaborative strategy and decide on your informational sources from the very start of your journey, your strategy will deliver true growth and intelligence.
- Measurement
Another classic market research mistake is measurement – or, more accurately, a lack of precise measurement. When embarking on market intelligence gathering processes, many companies fail to select the right KPIs and set the correct benchmarks for the task at hand. Without clearly defined goals, many organizations end up with a market analysis report format that offers little or no value in terms of decision-making or market insights.
To drive growth with your market research efforts, you must set clearly defined KPIs that align with your specific goals, aims, and desired outcomes.
- Competition
A common mistake among many new or scaling companies is failing to explore and examine the competition. This will leave you with gaping informational blindspots. To truly benefit from market research, you must gather valuable nuggets of information from every key source available. Rather than solely looking at your consumers and the wider market (which is incredibly important), you should take the time to see what approach your direct competitors have adopted while getting to grips with the content and communications.
One of the most effective ways of doing so (and avoiding such a monumental market research mistake) is by signing up for your competitors’ mailing lists, downloading their apps, and examining their social media content. This will give you inspiration for your own efforts while allowing you to exploit any gaps in the market that your competitors are failing to fill.
The challenges
- Informational quality
We may have an almost infinite wealth of informational insights at our fingertips, but when it comes to market research, knowing which information to trust can prove an uphill struggle.
When working with metrics, many companies run the risk of connecting with insights that are inaccurate or lead to a fruitless informational rabbit hole, wasting valuable time and resources in the process. To avoid such a mishap, working with a trusted modern market research and analysis sample is the only way forward.
- Senior buy-in
Another pressing market research challenge that stunts organizational growth is the simple case of senior buy-in. While almost every senior decision-maker knows that market research is an essential component of a successful commercial strategy, many are reluctant to invest an ample amount of time or money in the pursuit.
The best way to overcome such a challenge is by building a case that defines exactly how your market research strategy will offer a healthy ROI to every key aspect of the organization, from marketing and sales to customer experience (CX) and beyond.
- Response rates
Low interview, focus group, or poll response rates can have a serious impact on the success and value of your market research strategy. Even with adequate senior buy-in, you can’t always guarantee that you will get enough responses from early-round interviews or poll requests. If you don’t, your market research discoveries run the risk of being shallow or offering little in the way of actionable insight.
To overcome this common challenge, you can improve the incentive you offer your market research prospects while networking across a wider range of platforms to discover new contact opportunities. Changing the tone of voice of your ads or emails will also help boost your consumer or client response rates.
Bringing Your Reports a Step Further
Even if it is still widespread for market-style research results presentation, the use of PowerPoint at this stage is a hassle and presents many downsides and complications. When always busy managers or short-on-time top executives grab a report, they want a quick overview that provides them with an idea of the results, the big-picture that addresses the objectives: they need a dashboard. This can be applied to all areas of a business that needs fast and interactive data visualizations in order to support their decision-making.
We all know that a picture conveys more information than simple text or figures, so managing to bring it all together on an actionable dashboard will convey your message more efficiently. Besides, market research dashboards have the incredible advantage of always being up-to-date, since they work with real-time insights: the synchronization/updating nightmare of dozens of PowerPoint slides doesn’t exist for you anymore. This is particularly helpful for tracking studies performed over time, that recurrently need their data to be updated with more recent ones.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, companies have to identify and grab new opportunities as they arise, while staying away from threats and adapting quickly. In order to always be a step further and make the right decisions, it is critical to perform market research studies to get the information needed and make important decisions with confidence.
We’ve asked the question, “What is a market research report?”, examined the dynamics of a modern market research report example, and one thing’s for sure: a visual market research report is the best way to understand your customer and thus increase their satisfaction by meeting their expectations head-on.
From looking at a sample of a market research report, it’s also clear that modern dashboards help you see what is influencing your business with clarity, understand where your brand is situated in the market, and gauge the temperature of your niche or industry before a product or service launch. Once all the studies are done, you need to present them efficiently to ensure everyone in the business can make the right decisions that result in real progress: market research reports are your key allies in the matter.
To start presenting your results with efficient, interactive dynamic research reports and win on tomorrow’s commercial battlefield, try our dashboard reporting software and test every feature with our 14-day free trial !
Research Paper Guide
Research Paper Example
Research Paper Example - APA and MLA Format
12 min read
Published on: Nov 27, 2017
Last updated on: Jan 26, 2023
On This Page On This Page
Do you spend time staring at the screen and thinking about how to approach a monstrous research paper ?
If yes, you are not alone.
Research papers are no less than a curse for high school and college students.
It takes time, effort, and expertise to craft a striking research paper.
Every other person craves to master the magic of producing impressive research papers.
Continue with the guide to investigate the mysterious nature of different types of research through examples.
Research Paper Example for Different Formats
An academic paper doesn't have to be boring. You can use an anecdote, a provocative question, or a quote to begin the introduction.
Learning from introductions written in professional college papers is the best strategy.
Have a look at the expertise of the writer in the following example.
Social Media and Social Media Marketing: A Literature Review
APA Research Paper Example
While writing research papers, you must pay attention to the required format.
Follow the example when the instructor mentions the APA format .
Effects of Food Deprivation of Concentration and Preserverance
Research Paper Example APA 7th Edition
Research Paper Example MLA
Once you are done with APA format, let’s practice the art of writing quality MLA papers.
Found Voices: Carl Sagan
We have provided you with a top-notch research paper example in MLA format here.
Research Paper Example Chicago
Chicago style is not very common, but it is important to learn. Few institutions require this style for research papers, but it is essential to learn. The content and citations in the research paper are formatted like this example.
Chicago Research Paper Sample
Research Paper Example Harvard
To learn how a research paper is written using the Harvard citation style , carefully examine this example. Note the structure of the cover page and other pages.
Harvard Research Paper Sample
Examples for Different Research Paper Parts
A research paper has different parts. Each part is important for the overall success of the paper. Chapters in a research paper must be written correctly, using a certain format and structure.
The following are examples of how different sections of the research paper can be written.
Example of Research Proposal
What is the first step to starting a research paper?
Submitting the research proposal!
It involves several sections that take a toll on beginners.
Here is a detailed guide to help you write a research proposal .
Are you a beginner or do you lack experience? Don’t worry.
The following example of a research paper is the perfect place to get started.
View Research Proposal Example Here
Research Paper Example Abstract
After submitting the research proposal, prepare to write a seasoned abstract section.
The abstract delivers the bigger picture by revealing the purpose of the research.
A common mistake students make is writing it the same way a summary is written.
It is not merely a summary but an analysis of the whole research project. Still confused?
Read the abstract mentioned in the following research to get a better idea.
Affirmative Action: What Do We Know? - Abstract Example
Literature Review Research Paper Example
What if a novice person reads your research paper?
He will never understand the critical elements involved in the research paper.
To enlighten him, focus on the literature review section. This section offers an extensive analysis of the past research conducted on the paper topics.
It is relatively easier than other sections of the paper.
Take a closer look at the paper below to find out.
Methods Section of Research Paper Example
While writing research papers, excellent papers focus a great deal on the methodology.
Yes, the research sample and methodology define the fate of the papers.
Are you facing trouble going through the methodology section?
Relax and let comprehensive sample research papers clear your doubts.
View Methods Section of Research Paper Here
Research Paper Conclusion Example
The conclusion leaves the last impression on the reader.
“Who cares for the last impression? It’s always the first.”
Don’t be fooled!
The conclusion sets the tone of the whole research paper properly.
A key list of elements must be present in conclusion to make it crisp and remarkable.
The Conclusion: Your Paper's Final Impression
View the sample paper and identify the points you thought were never a part of the conclusion.
Research Paper Examples for Different Fields
Research papers can be about any subject that needs a detailed study. The following examples show how research papers are written for different subjects.
History Research Paper Sample
Many Faces of Generalisimo Fransisco Franco
Sociology Research Paper Sample
A Descriptive Statistical Analysis within the State of Virginia
Science Fair Research Paper Sample
What Do I Need To Do For The Science Fair?
Psychology Research Paper Sample
The Effects of Food Deprivation on Concentration and Preserverance
Art History Research Paper Sample
European Art History: A Primer
Scientific Research Paper Example
We have discussed several elements of research papers through examples.
Research Proposal!
Introduction in Research Paper!
Read on to move towards advanced versions of information.
Scientific research paper
Let's have a look at the template and an example to elaborate on concepts.
It includes:
- Introduction
- Related Work
- Research Methodology
- Experiments
- Results and Discussion
- Conclusion & Future Work
- Acknowledgment
The name itself sounds terrifying to many students. Make no mistake; it sure is dangerous when touched without practice.
Students become afraid and hence aspire to locate an outstanding essay paper writer to get their papers done.
Detailed, high-quality, and credible sources and samples are a must to be shared here.
Science Fair Paper Format
Example of Methodology in Research Paper
The words methodology, procedure, and approach are the same. They indicate the approach pursued by the researcher while conducting research to accomplish the goal through research.
The methodology is the bloodline of the research paper.
A practical or assumed procedure is used to conduct the methodology.
The Effects of Immediate Feedback Devices in High School Chemistry Classes
See the way the researcher has shared participants and limits in the methodology section of the example.
Research Paper Example for Different Levels
The process of writing a research paper is based on a set of steps. The process will seem daunting if you are unaware of the basic steps. Start writing your research paper by taking the following steps:
- Choose a Topic
- Create a thesis statement
- Do in-depth research for the research study
- Create an outline
You will find writing a research paper much easier once you have a plan.
No matter which level you are writing at, your research paper needs to be well structured.
Research Paper Example Outline
Before you plan on writing a well-researched paper, make a rough draft.
Brainstorm again and again!
Pour all of your ideas into the basket of the outline.
What will it include?
A standard is not set but follow the research paper outline example below:
View Research Paper Outline Example Here
This example outlines the following elements:
- Thesis Statement
- Methodology
Utilize this standard of outline in your research papers to polish your paper. Here is a step-by-step guide that will help you write a research paper according to this format.
Good Research Paper Examples for Students
Theoretically, good research paper examples will meet the objectives of the research.
Always remember! The first goal of the research paper is to explain ideas, goals, and theory as clearly as water.
Yes, leave no room for confusion of any sort.
Fiscal Research Center - Action Plan
Qualitative Research Paper Example
Research Paper Example Introduction
How to Write a Research Paper Example?
Research Paper Example for High School
When the professor reads such a professional research paper, he will be delighted.
High scores!
Grant of funds for the project!
Appreciation in Class!
You'll surely be highly rewarded.
Research Paper Conclusion
“Who cares for the last impression? It's always the first.”
Don't be fooled!
A key list of elements must be present in the conclusion to make it crisp and remarkable.
Critical Research Paper
To write a research paper remarkably, include the following ingredients in it:
- Justification of the Experimental Design
- Analysis of Results
- Validation of the Study
How to Write the Methods Section of a Research Paper
Theoretical Framework Examples
The theoretical framework is the key to establish credibility in research papers.
Read the purpose of the theoretical framework before following it in the research paper.
The researcher offers a guide through a theoretical framework.
- Philosophical view
- Conceptual Analysis
- Benefits of the Research
An in-depth analysis of theoretical framework examples research paper is underlined in the sample below.
View Theoretical Framework Example Here
Now that you have explored the research paper examples, you can start working on your research project.
Hopefully, these examples will help you understand the writing process for a research paper. You can hire an essay writer online if you still require help writing your paper. You can buy well-written yet cheap research papers by contacting our expert and professional writers.
So, contact our essay writing service now.
Nova A. (Literature, Marketing)
Nova Allison is a Digital Content Strategist with over eight years of experience. Nova has also worked as a technical and scientific writer. She is majorly involved in developing and reviewing online content plans that engage and resonate with audiences. Nova has a passion for writing that engages and informs her readers.
People also read
Writing A Research Paper - A Step by Step Guide
Research Paper Outline - A Complete Guide with Examples
250+ Interesting Research Paper Topics for 2022
Research Proposal - A Complete Format Guide and Template
How to Start a Research Paper - 7 Easy Steps
How to Write an Abstract - A Step by Step Guide
Learn How To Write A Literature Review In Simple Steps
Qualitative Research - Methods, Types, and Examples
Types Of Qualitative Research - Overview & Examples
Qualitative vs Quantitative Research - Learning the Basics
Psychology Research Topics - 200+ Interesting Ideas
Learn How to Write a Hypothesis in Simple Steps
Types of Research With Examples - A Detailed Guide
Quantitative Research - Types & Data Collection Techniques
Interesting Sociology Research Topics & Ideas for Students
How to Cite a Research Paper - Learn with Helpful Examples
Interesting History Research Paper Topics (2022)
How to Write a Research Methodology for a Research Paper
Share this article
Keep reading
We value your privacy
We use cookies to improve your experience and give you personalized content. Do you agree to our cookie policy?
Website Data Collection
We use data collected by cookies and JavaScript libraries.
Are you sure you want to cancel?
Your preferences have not been saved.
Join 307,012+ Monthly Readers
Get Free and Instant Access To The Banker Blueprint : 57 Pages Of Career Boosting Advice Already Downloaded By 115,341+ Industry Peers.
- Break Into Investment Banking
- Write A Resume or Cover Letter
- Win Investment Banking Interviews
- Ace Your Investment Banking Interviews
- Win Investment Banking Internships
- Master Financial Modeling
- Get Into Private Equity
- Get A Job At A Hedge Fund
- Recent Posts
- Articles By Category
What’s in an Equity Research Report?
If you're new here, please click here to get my FREE 57-page investment banking recruiting guide - plus, get weekly updates so that you can break into investment banking . Thanks for visiting!
Even though you can easily find real equity research reports via the magical tool known as “Google,” we’ve continued to get questions on this topic.
Whenever I see the same question over and over again, you know what I do: I bash my head in repeatedly and contemplate jumping off a building…
…and then I write an article to answer the question.
To understand an equity research report, you must understand what goes into a stock pitch first.
The idea is similar, but an ER report is a “watered-down” version of a stock pitch.
But banks have some very solid reasons for publishing equity research reports:
Why Do Equity Research Reports Matter?
You might remember from previous articles that equity research teams do not spend that much time writing these reports .
Most of their time is spent speaking with management teams and institutional investors and sharing their views on sectors and companies.
However, equity research reports are still important because:
- You do still spend some time doing the required modeling work (~15%) and writing the reports (~20%).
- You might have to write a research report as part of the interview process.
For example, if you apply to an equity research role or an equity research internship , especially in an off-cycle process, you might be asked to draft a short report on a company.
And then in roles outside of ER, you need to know how to interpret reports quickly and extract the key information.
Equity Research Reports: Myth vs. Reality
If you want to understand equity research reports, you have to understand first why banks publish them: to earn higher commissions from trading activity.
A bank wants to encourage institutional investors to buy more shares of the companies it covers.
Doing so generates more trading volume and higher commissions for the bank.
This is why you rarely, if ever, see “Sell” ratings, and why “Hold” ratings are far less common than “Buy” ratings.
Different Types of Equity Research Reports
One last point before getting into the tutorial: There are many different types of research reports.
“Initiating Coverage” reports tend to be long – 50-100 pages or more – and have tons of industry research and data.
“Sector Reports” on entire industries are also very long. And there are other types, which you can read about here .
In this tutorial, we’re focusing on the “Company Update” or “Company Note”-type reports, which are the most common ones.
The Full Tutorial, Video, and Sample Equity Research Reports
For our full walk-through of equity research reports, please see the video below:
Table of Contents:
- 1:43: Part 1: Stock Pitches vs. Equity Research Reports
- 6:00: Part 2: The 4 Main Differences in Research Reports
- 12:46: Part 3: Sample Reports and the Typical Sections
- 20:53: Recap and Summary
You can get the reports and documents referenced in the video here:
- Equity Research Report – Jazz Pharmaceuticals [JAZZ] – OUTPERFORM [BUY] Recommendation [PDF]
- Equity Research Report – Shawbrook [SHAW] – NEUTRAL [HOLD] Recommendation [PDF]
- Equity Research Reports vs. Stock Pitches – Slides [PDF]
If you want the text version instead, keep reading:
Watered-Down Stock Pitches
You should think of equity research reports as “watered-down stock pitches.”
If you’ve forgotten, a hedge fund or asset management stock pitch ( sample stock pitch here ) has the following components:
- Part 1: Recommendation
- Part 2: Company Background
- Part 3: Investment Thesis
- Part 4: Catalysts
- Part 5: Valuation
- Part 6: Investment Risks and How to Mitigate Them
- Part 7: The Worst-Case Scenario and How to Avoid It
In a stock pitch, you’ll spend most of your time and energy on the Catalysts, Valuation, and Investment Risks because you want to express a VERY different view of the company .
For example, the company’s stock price is $100, but you believe it’s worth only $50 because it’s about to report earnings 80% lower than expectations.
Therefore, you recommend shorting the stock. You also recommend purchasing call options at an exercise price of $125 to limit your losses to 25% if the stock moves in the opposite direction.
In an equity research report, you’ll still express a view of the company that’s different from the consensus, but your view won’t be dramatically different.
You’ll spend more time on the Company Background and Valuation sections, and far less time and space on the Catalysts and Risk Factors. And you won’t even write a Worst-Case Scenario section.
If a company seems overvalued by 50%, a research analyst would probably write a “Hold” recommendation, say that there’s “uncertainty around several customers,” and claim that the company’s current market value is appropriate.
Oh, and by the way, one risk factor is that the company might report lower-than-expected earnings.
The Four Main Differences in Equity Research Reports
The main differences are as follows:
1) There’s More Emphasis on Recent Results and Announcements
For example, how does a recent product announcement, clinical trial result, or earnings report impact the company?
You’ll almost always see recent news and updates on the first page of a research report:
These factors may play a role in hedge fund stock pitches as well, but more so in short recommendations since timing is more important there.
2) Far-Outside-the-Mainstream Views Are Less Common
One comical example of this trend is how all 15 equity research analysts covering Enron rated it a “buy” right before it collapsed :
Sell-side analysts are far less likely to point out that the emperor has no clothes than buy-side analysts.
3) Research Reports Give “Target Prices” Rather Than Target Price Ranges
For example, the company is trading at $50.00 right now, but we expect its price to increase to exactly $75.00 in the next twelve months.
This idea is completely ridiculous because valuation is always about the range of possible outcomes, not a specific outcome.
Despite horrendously low accuracy , this practice continues.
To be fair, many analysts do give target prices in different cases, which is an improvement:
4) The Investment Thesis, Catalysts, and Risk Factors Are “Looser”
These sections tend to be “afterthoughts” in most reports.
For example, the bank might give a few reasons why it expects the company’s share price to rise: the company will capture more market share than expected, it will be able to increase its product prices more rapidly than expected, and a competitor is about to go bankrupt.
However, the sell-side analyst will not tie these factors to specific share-price impacts as a buy-side analyst would.
Similarly, the report might mention catalysts and investment risks, but there won’t be a link to a specific valuation impact from each factor.
So the typical stock pitch logic (“We think there’s a 50% chance of gaining 80% and a 50% chance of losing 20%”) won’t be spelled out explicitly:
Your Sample Equity Research Reports
To illustrate these concepts, I’m sharing two equity research reports from our financial modeling courses :
The first one is from the valuation case study in our Financial Modeling Mastery course , and the second one is from the main case study in our Bank Modeling course .
We started by creating traditional HF/AM stock pitches and valuations and then made our views weaker in the research reports.
The Typical Sections of an Equity Research Report
So let’s briefly go through the main sections of these reports, using the two examples above:
Page 1: Update, Rating, Price Target, and Recent Results
The first page of an “Update” report states the bank’s recommendation (Buy, Hold, or Sell, sometimes with slightly different terminology), and gives recent updates on the company.
For example, in both these reports we reference recent earnings results from the companies and expectations for the next fiscal year:
We also give a “target price,” explain where it comes from, and give our estimates for the company’s key financial metrics.
We mention catalysts in both reports, but we don’t link anything to a specific valuation impact.
One problem with providing a specific “target price” is that it must be based on specific multiples and specific assumptions in a DCF or DDM.
So with Jazz, we explain that the $170.00 target is based on 20.7x and 15.3x EV/EBITDA multiples for the comps, and a discount rate of 8.07% and Terminal FCF growth rate of 0.3% in the DCF.
Next: Operations and Financial Summary
Next, you’ll see a section with lots of graphs and charts detailing the company’s financial performance, market share, and important metrics and ratios.
For a pharmaceutical company like Jazz, you might see revenue by product, pricing and # of patients per product per year, and EBITDA margins.
For a commercial bank like Shawbrook, you might see loan growth, interest rates, interest income and net income, and regulatory capital figures such as the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) and Tangible Common Equity (TCE) ratios:
This section of the report explains how the analyst or equity research associate forecast the company’s performance and came up with the numbers used in the valuation.
The valuation section is the one that’s most similar in a research report and a stock pitch.
In both fields, you explain how you arrived at the company’s implied value, which usually involves pasting in a DCF or DDM analysis and comparable companies and transactions.
The methodologies are the same, but the assumptions might differ substantially.
In research, you’re also more likely to point to specific multiples, such as the 75 th percentile EV/EBITDA multiple, and explain why they are the most meaningful ones.
For example, you might argue that since the company’s growth rates and margins exceed the medians of the set, it deserves to be valued at the 75 th percentile multiples rather than the median multiples:
Investment Thesis, Catalysts, and Risks
This section is short, and it is more of an afterthought than anything else.
We do give reasons for why these companies might be mis-priced, but the reasoning isn’t that detailed.
For example, in the Shawbrook report we state that the U.K. mortgage market might slow down and that regulatory changes might reduce the market size and the company’s market share:
Those are legitimate catalysts, but the report doesn’t explain their share-price impact in the same way that a stock pitch would.
Finally, banks present Investment Risks mostly so they can say, “Well, we warned you there were risks and that our recommendation might be wrong.”
By contrast, buy-side analysts present Investment Risks so they can say, “There is a legitimate chance we could lose 50% – let’s hedge against that risk with options or other investments so that our fund does not collapse .”
How These Reports Both Differ from the Corresponding Stock Pitches
The Jazz equity research report corresponds to a “Long” pitch that’s much stronger:
- We estimate its intrinsic value as $180 – $220 / share , up from $170 in the report.
- We estimate the per-share impact of each catalyst: price increases add 15% to the share price, more patients from marketing efforts add 10%, and later-than-expected generics competition adds 15%.
- We also estimate the per-share impact from the risk factors and conclude that in the worst case , the company’s share price might decline from $130 to $75-$80. But in all likelihood, even if we’re wrong, the company is simply valued appropriately at $130.
- And then we explain how to hedge against these risks with put options.
The same differences apply to the Shawbrook research report vs. the stock pitch, but the stock pitch there is a “Short” recommendation where we claim that the company is overvalued by 30-50%.
And that sums up the differences perfectly: A Short recommendation with 30-50% downside in a stock pitch turns into a “Hold” recommendation with roughly equal upside and downside in a sell-side research report.
I’ve been harsh on equity research here, but I don’t want to disparage it too much.
There are many positives: You do get more creativity than in IB, it might be better for hedge fund or asset management exits, and it’s more fun to follow companies than to grind through grunt work on deals.
But no matter how you slice it, most equity research reports are watered-down stock pitches.
So, make sure you understand the “strong stuff” first before you downgrade – even if your long-term goal is equity research.
About the Author
Brian DeChesare is the Founder of Mergers & Inquisitions and Breaking Into Wall Street . In his spare time, he enjoys memorizing obscure Excel functions, editing resumes, obsessing over TV shows, traveling like a drug dealer, and defeating Sauron.
Free Exclusive Report: 57-page guide with the action plan you need to break into investment banking - how to tell your story, network, craft a winning resume, and dominate your interviews
Read below or Add a comment
15 thoughts on “ What’s in an Equity Research Report? ”
Hi Brian, what softwares are available to publish Research Reports?
We use Word templates. Some large banks have specialized/custom programs, but not sure how common they are.
Is it possible if you can send me a template in word of an equity report? It will help the graduate stock management fund a lot at Umass Boston.
We only have PDF versions for these, but Word should be able to open any PDF reasonably well.
Do you also provide a pre constructed version of an ER in word?
We have editable examples of equity research reports in Word, but we generally only share PDF versions on this site.
Hey Brian Can you please help me with coverage initiated reports on oil companies. I could not find them on the net. I need to them to get equity research experience, after which only I will be able to get into the field. I searched but reports could not be found even for a price. Thanks
We have an example of an oil & gas stock pitch on this site… do a search…
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/oil-gas-stock-pitch/
Beyond that, sorry, we cannot look for reports and then share them with you or we’d be inundated with requests to do that every day.
No worries. Thanks!
Hi! Brian! Do u know how investment bankers design and layout an equity research? the software they use. like MS Word, Adobe Indesign or something…? And how to create and layout one? Thanks
where can I get free equity research report? I am a Chinese student and now study in Australia. Is the Morning Star a good resource for research report?
Get a TD Ameritrade to access free reports there for certain companies.
How do you view the ER industry since the trading commission has been down 50% since 2007. And there are new in coming regulation governing the ER reports have to explicitly priced and funds need to pay for the report explicity rather than as a service comes free with brokerage?
In addition the whole S&T environment is becoming highly automated.
People have been predicting the death of equity research for over a decade, but it’s still here. It may not be around in 100 years, but it will still be around in another 10 years, though it will be smaller and less relevant.
Yes, things are becoming more automated, but the actual job of an equity research analyst or associate hasn’t changed dramatically. A machine can’t speak with investors to assess their sentiment on a company – only humans can do that.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Got an Investment Banking Interview?
The BIWS Interview Guide has 578+ pages of technical and fit questions & answers, personal pitch templates, 17 practice case studies, and more.
- Advertising
- Applications
- Assessments
- Certificates
- Announcement
- Invitations
- Newsletters
- Questionnaires
- Food & Beverages
- Recruitment
- Marketing Examples
- Transportation
3+ Short Research Report Examples in PDF
Short research report, 3+ short research report examples, 1. short research report template, 2. basic short research report, 3. general short research report, 4. short research assessment report, does a research report requires an executive summary, what is a good research report, what are the main contents of research report.
Short Research Report Definition
Features of a research report, types of research report, importance of research report, tips for writing research reports, more design, research summary examples, how to write a short report examples, how to write an interview report with examples, how to write an evaluation report examples, 27+ business report format examples, free 22+ research statement examples, 22+ investigation report examples, free 15+ sample activity reports, 15+ project summary examples, 12+ proposal memo examples, free 11+ short proposal examples, 11+ data analysis report examples, related articles.
- 33+ Business Report Examples
- 22+ Research Paper Outline Examples
Equity Research Report
A recommendation to buy, sell, or hold shares of a public company
What is an Equity Research Report?
An equity research report is a document prepared by an Analyst that provides a recommendation on whether investors should buy, hold, or sell shares of a public company . Additionally, it provides an overview of the business, the industry it operates in, the management team, its financial performance , risks, and the target price.
To learn more, check out CFI’s Valuation Modeling Classes .
Contents of an Equity Research Report
Let’s take a closer look at what’s included in an equity research report. Below is a list of the main sections you’ll find in one of these reports.
- Recommendation – Typically to either buy, sell, or hold shares in the company. This section also usually includes a target price (i.e., $47.00 in the next 12 months).
- Company Update – Any recent information, new releases, quarterly or annual results , major contracts, management changes, or any other important information about the company.
- Investment Thesis – A summary of why the analyst believes the stock will over or underperform and what will cause it to reach the share price target included in the recommendation. This is probably the most interesting part of the report.
- Financial Information & Valuation – A forecast of the company’s income statement , balance sheet, cash flow , and valuation. This section is often an output from a financial model built in Excel.
- Risk & Disclaimers – An overview of the risks associated with investing in the stock. This is usually a laundry list that includes all conceivable risks, thus making it feel like a legal disclaimer. The reports also have extensive disclaimers in addition to the risk section.
Buy Side vs Sell Side Research
It’s important to distinguish between buy side and sell side research reports.
Buy side firms (asset management companies) have their own internal research teams that produce reports and recommendations on which stocks the firm and its portfolio managers should buy and sell. The reports are only used for internal investment decision making and not distributed publicly.
Sell side firms such as investment banks produce equity research reports to be disseminated to their sales and trading clients and wealth management clients. These reports are distributed for free for a variety of reasons (explained below) and have a specific recommendation to buy, sell, or hold as well as an expected target price.
Learn more about buy side vs sell side jobs.
Why Do Banks Publish Equity Research Reports?
The sell side publishes reports to generate fees, both directly and indirectly.
Direct: Trading Commissions
When an investment bank publishes valuable equity research for an institutional client, that client is then likely to use the bank to execute their trades for that stock. While there no actual agreement to do so, it’s an unspoken rule. The bank may also use the report to persuade the client to buy more shares in a holding they already have, to therefor further increase commissions.
Indirect: Investment Banking Relationships
All banks have a Chinese Wall between their investment banking teams and research departments, but there still remains an indirect incentive for research to be supportive of stocks the bank may provide investment banking services to. The fees that investment bankers earn on underwriting and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are huge, and a bank would never want to miss out an opportunity to work with a CEO of a public company because the bank had a “Sell” rating on their stock.
For this reason, sell side research typically includes a disclaimer along the lines of, “Bank X seeks and does business with companies that are covered in its research reports. Because of this, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest (due to these investment banking relationships) that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision.”
Equity Research Report Recommendations
Each bank has their own set of recommendations (terms) they use to rate a stock. Below is a list of the most common recommendations or rating analysts issue.
Ratings include:
- Buy, Outperform, Overweight
- Hold, Neutral, Marketweight
- Sell, Underperform, Underweight
To learn more, check out CFI’s Valuation Modeling Courses .
Different Types of Reports
This guide has focused on a “typical” equity research report, but there are various other types that can take slightly different forms. Below is a list of other types.
Types of reports:
- Initiating Coverage – A long report (often 50-100+ pages long) that is released when a firm starts covering a stock for the first time.
- Industry Reports – General industry updates about a few companies in a sector.
- Top Picks – A list and summary of a firm’s top stock picks and their targeted returns.
- Quarterly Results – A report that focuses on the company’s quarterly earnings release and any updated guidance.
- Flash Reports – Quick 1-2 page report that comments on a new release from the company or other quick information.
Equity Research Report Example
Below is an example of an equity research report on Kraft Foods. As you can see in the images below, the analyst clearly lays out the recommendation, target price, recent updates, investment thesis, valuation, and risks.
Additional Resources
Thank you for reading CFI’s guide on Equity Research Report. To learn more, these additional resources will be helpful:
- Valuation Methods
- Types of Valuation Multiples
- DCF Modeling Guide
- Finance Salary Guides
- See all valuation resources
- See all capital markets resources
- Share this article
How to Write a Lab Report: Step-by-Step Guide & Examples
Saul Mcleod, PhD
Educator, Researcher
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul Mcleod, Ph.D., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years experience of working in further and higher education.
Learn about our Editorial Process
Olivia Guy-Evans
Associate Editor for Simply Psychology
BSc (Hons), Psychology, MSc, Psychology of Education
Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.
A typical lab report would include the following sections: title, abstract, introduction, method, results, and discussion.
The title page, abstract, references, and appendices are started on separate pages (subsections from the main body of the report are not). Use double-line spacing of text, font size 12, and include page numbers.
The report should have a thread of arguments linking the prediction in the introduction to the content in the discussion
This must indicate what the study is about. It must include the variables under investigation. It should not be written as a question.
Title pages should be formatted in APA style .
The abstract provides a concise and comprehensive summary of a research report. Your style should be brief but not use note form. Look at examples in journal articles . It should aim to explain very briefly (about 150 words) the following:
- Start with a one/two sentence summary, providing the aim and rationale for the study.
- Describe participants and setting: who, when, where, how many, and what groups?
- Describe the method: what design, what experimental treatment, what questionnaires, surveys, or tests were used.
- Describe the major findings, including a mention of the statistics used and the significance levels, or simply one sentence summing up the outcome.
- The final sentence(s) outline the study’s “contribution to knowledge” within the literature. What does it all mean? Mention the implications of your findings if appropriate.
The abstract comes at the beginning of your report but is written at the end (as it summarises information from all the other sections of the report).
Introduction
The purpose of the introduction is to explain where your hypothesis comes from (i.e., it should provide a rationale for your research study).
Ideally, the introduction should have a funnel structure: Start broad and then become more specific. The aims should not appear out of thin air; the preceding review of psychological literature should lead logically into the aims and hypotheses.
- Start with general theory, briefly introducing the topic. Define the important key terms.
- Explain the theoretical framework.
- Summarise and synthesize previous studies – What was the purpose? Who were the participants? What did they do? What did they find? What do these results mean? How do the results relate to the theoretical framework?
- Rationale: How does the current study address a gap in the literature? Perhaps it overcomes a limitation of previous research.
- Aims and hypothesis. Write a paragraph explaining what you plan to investigate and make a clear and concise prediction regarding the results you expect to find.
There should be a logical progression of ideas that aids the flow of the report. This means the studies outlined should lead logically to your aims and hypotheses.
Do be concise and selective, and avoid the temptation to include anything in case it is relevant (i.e., don’t write a shopping list of studies).
USE THE FOLLOWING SUBHEADINGS:
Participants
- How many participants were recruited?
- Say how you obtained your sample (e.g., opportunity sample).
- Give relevant demographic details (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age range, mean age, and standard deviation).
- State the experimental design .
- What were the independent and dependent variables ? Make sure the independent variable is labeled and name the different conditions/levels.
- For example, if gender is the independent variable label, then male and female are the levels/conditions/groups.
- How were the IV and DV operationalized?
- Identify any controls used, e.g., counterbalancing and control of extraneous variables.
- List all the materials and measures (e.g., what was the title of the questionnaire? Was it adapted from a study?).
- You do not need to include wholesale replication of materials – instead, include a ‘sensible’ (illustrate) level of detail. For example, give examples of questionnaire items.
- Include the reliability (e.g., alpha values) for the measure(s).
- Describe the precise procedure you followed when conducting your research, i.e., exactly what you did.
- Describe in sufficient detail to allow for replication of findings.
- Be concise in your description and omit extraneous/trivial details, e.g., you don’t need to include details regarding instructions, debrief, record sheets, etc.
- Assume the reader has no knowledge of what you did and ensure that he/she can replicate (i.e., copy) your study exactly by what you write in this section.
- Write in the past tense.
- Don’t justify or explain in the Method (e.g., why you chose a particular sampling method); just report what you did.
- Only give enough detail for someone to replicate the experiment – be concise in your writing.
- The results section of a paper usually presents descriptive statistics followed by inferential statistics.
- Report the means, standard deviations, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each IV level. If you have four to 20 numbers to present, a well-presented table is best, APA style.
- Name the statistical test being used.
- Report appropriate statistics (e.g., t-scores, p values ).
- Report the magnitude (e.g., are the results significant or not?) as well as the direction of the results (e.g., which group performed better?).
- It is optional to report the effect size (this does not appear on the SPSS output).
- Avoid interpreting the results (save this for the discussion).
- Make sure the results are presented clearly and concisely. A table can be used to display descriptive statistics if this makes the data easier to understand.
- DO NOT include any raw data.
- Follow APA style.
Use APA Style
- Numbers reported to 2 d.p. (incl. 0 before the decimal if 1.00, e.g., “0.51”). The exceptions to this rule: Numbers which can never exceed 1.0 (e.g., p -values, r-values): report to 3 d.p. and do not include 0 before the decimal place, e.g., “.001”.
- Percentages and degrees of freedom: report as whole numbers.
- Statistical symbols that are not Greek letters should be italicized (e.g., M , SD , t , X 2 , F , p , d ).
- Include spaces on either side of the equals sign.
- When reporting 95%, CIs (confidence intervals), upper and lower limits are given inside square brackets, e.g., “95% CI [73.37, 102.23]”
- Outline your findings in plain English (avoid statistical jargon) and relate your results to your hypothesis, e.g., is it supported or rejected?
- Compare your results to background materials from the introduction section. Are your results similar or different? Discuss why/why not.
- How confident can we be in the results? Acknowledge limitations, but only if they can explain the result obtained. If the study has found a reliable effect, be very careful suggesting limitations as you are doubting your results. Unless you can think of any c onfounding variable that can explain the results instead of the IV, it would be advisable to leave the section out.
- Suggest constructive ways to improve your study if appropriate.
- What are the implications of your findings? Say what your findings mean for how people behave in the real world.
- Suggest an idea for further research triggered by your study, something in the same area but not simply an improved version of yours. Perhaps you could base this on a limitation of your study.
- Concluding paragraph – Finish with a statement of your findings and the key points of the discussion (e.g., interpretation and implications) in no more than 3 or 4 sentences.
The reference section lists all the sources cited in the essay (alphabetically). It is not a bibliography (a list of the books you used).
In simple terms, every time you refer to a psychologist’s name (and date), you need to reference the original source of information.
If you have been using textbooks this is easy as the references are usually at the back of the book and you can just copy them down. If you have been using websites then you may have a problem as they might not provide a reference section for you to copy.
References need to be set out APA style :
Author, A. A. (year). Title of work . Location: Publisher.
Journal Articles
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume number (issue number), page numbers
A simple way to write your reference section is to use Google scholar . Just type the name and date of the psychologist in the search box and click on the “cite” link.
Next, copy and paste the APA reference into the reference section of your essay.
Once again, remember that references need to be in alphabetical order according to surname.
Have a language expert improve your writing
Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.
- Knowledge Base
- Dissertation
Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples
Published on September 9, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on November 11, 2022.
It can be difficult to know where to start when writing your thesis or dissertation . One way to come up with some ideas or maybe even combat writer’s block is to check out previous work done by other students on a similar thesis or dissertation topic to yours.
This article collects a list of undergraduate, master’s, and PhD theses and dissertations that have won prizes for their high-quality research.
Table of contents
Award-winning undergraduate theses, award-winning master’s theses, award-winning ph.d. dissertations.
University : University of Pennsylvania Faculty : History Author : Suchait Kahlon Award : 2021 Hilary Conroy Prize for Best Honors Thesis in World History Title : “Abolition, Africans, and Abstraction: the Influence of the “Noble Savage” on British and French Antislavery Thought, 1787-1807”
University : Columbia University Faculty : History Author : Julien Saint Reiman Award : 2018 Charles A. Beard Senior Thesis Prize Title : “A Starving Man Helping Another Starving Man”: UNRRA, India, and the Genesis of Global Relief, 1943-1947
University: University College London Faculty: Geography Author: Anna Knowles-Smith Award: 2017 Royal Geographical Society Undergraduate Dissertation Prize Title: Refugees and theatre: an exploration of the basis of self-representation
University: University of Washington Faculty: Computer Science & Engineering Author: Nick J. Martindell Award: 2014 Best Senior Thesis Award Title: DCDN: Distributed content delivery for the modern web
University: University of Edinburgh Faculty: Informatics Author: Christopher Sipola Award: 2018 Social Responsibility & Sustainability Dissertation Prize Title: Summarizing electricity usage with a neural network
University: University of Ottawa Faculty: Education Author: Matthew Brillinger Award: 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Humanities Prize Title: Educational Park Planning in Berkeley, California, 1965-1968
University: University of Ottawa Faculty: Social Sciences Author: Heather Martin Award: 2015 Joseph De Koninck Prize Title: An Analysis of Sexual Assault Support Services for Women who have a Developmental Disability
University : University of Ottawa Faculty : Physics Author : Guillaume Thekkadath Award : 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Sciences Prize Title : Joint measurements of complementary properties of quantum systems
University: London School of Economics Faculty: International Development Author: Lajos Kossuth Award: 2016 Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Title: Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction
Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting
Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:
- Academic style
- Vague sentences
- Style consistency
See an example
University : Stanford University Faculty : English Author : Nathan Wainstein Award : 2021 Alden Prize Title : “Unformed Art: Bad Writing in the Modernist Novel”
University : University of Massachusetts at Amherst Faculty : Molecular and Cellular Biology Author : Nils Pilotte Award : 2021 Byron Prize for Best Ph.D. Dissertation Title : “Improved Molecular Diagnostics for Soil-Transmitted Molecular Diagnostics for Soil-Transmitted Helminths”
University: Utrecht University Faculty: Linguistics Author: Hans Rutger Bosker Award: 2014 AVT/Anéla Dissertation Prize Title: The processing and evaluation of fluency in native and non-native speech
University: California Institute of Technology Faculty: Physics Author: Michael P. Mendenhall Award: 2015 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics Title: Measurement of the neutron beta decay asymmetry using ultracold neutrons
University: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Faculty: Computer Science Author: John Criswell Award: 2014 Doctoral Dissertation Award Title: Secure Virtual Architecture: Security for Commodity Software Systems
University: Stanford University Faculty: Management Science and Engineering Author: Shayan O. Gharan Award: Doctoral Dissertation Award 2013 Title: New Rounding Techniques for the Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms
University: University of Minnesota Faculty: Chemical Engineering Author: Eric A. Vandre Award: 2014 Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics Title: Onset of Dynamics Wetting Failure: The Mechanics of High-speed Fluid Displacement
University: Erasmus University Rotterdam Faculty: Marketing Author: Ezgi Akpinar Award: McKinsey Marketing Dissertation Award 2014 Title: Consumer Information Sharing: Understanding Psychological Drivers of Social Transmission
University: University of Washington Faculty: Computer Science & Engineering Author: Keith N. Snavely Award: 2009 Doctoral Dissertation Award Title: Scene Reconstruction and Visualization from Internet Photo Collections
University: University of Ottawa Faculty: Social Work Author: Susannah Taylor Award: 2018 Joseph De Koninck Prize Title: Effacing and Obscuring Autonomy: the Effects of Structural Violence on the Transition to Adulthood of Street Involved Youth
Cite this Scribbr article
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
George, T. (2022, November 11). Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/examples/
Is this article helpful?
Tegan George
Other students also liked, how to choose a dissertation topic | 8 steps to follow, checklist: writing a dissertation, thesis & dissertation database examples, what is your plagiarism score.
- Content Types
Presentations Keep your audience engaged.
Documents Formalize your branding.
Videos Add movement to your brand.
Infographics Share information visually.
Printables Create content for printing.
Charts and Graphs Bring life to your data.
Social Media Graphics Create scroll-stopping content.
Mockups Create high-quality mockups in seconds.
Branded Templates new Get a bundle of templates that match your brand.
- Features & Assets
Interactivity
Integrations
Data Widgets
Collaborations
Presenter Studio
Free Educational Resources See All
Visme Video Tutorials Watch videos on how to use Visme.
Ebooks Read in-depth knowledge for your industry.
Graphic Design Videos Learn design principles & best practices.
Live Webinars Interact with the experts live.
Free Online Courses Get certified with free online courses.
Our Blog See All
- Presentations
Video & Animations
- Digital Marketing
- Infographics
- Design for Business
Data Visualization
- Design Inspiration
For Teams All Teams
Agencies & Consulting Manage multiple brands.
Education Use Visme in the classroom.
Nonprofit Bring life to your cause.
Enterprises Create visual content at scale.
- Perfect For These Roles
Marketers Creative content that shines.
Human Resources Improve internal communication.
Sales Teams Close more deals with your content.
Training Development Create interactive training content.
Templates See All
Presentations 1000+ layouts and themes.
Chart & Maps Get data visualization ideas.
Social Media Graphics Browse templates for every platform.
Infographics Find the right format for your information.
Documents Templates for every business document.
Videos & GIFs Find the perfect preanimated template.
Branded Templates Get a bundle of templates that match your brand.
- Other Templates
Website Graphics
Survey Results
- Case Studies
- Sign Up Free
- Free Educational Resources
- Most Recent
- Data Visualizations
- Video & Animation
- Visual Thinking
- Product Updates
- Visme Webinars
Report Examples With Sample Templates [To Edit and Download]
![Report Examples With Sample Templates [To Edit and Download]](https://visme.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/header-13.jpg "full research report example")
Written by: Orana Velarde
Looking for report examples? You’ve probably noticed in your search that there many different kinds.
It can get a little confusing if you don’t know exactly what report example you’re looking for. Don’t worry, we can help.
But first, what is a report anyway?
A report is a document that details a specific set of information about any number of topics. It’s a compilation of data and facts put together to show or explain to someone or a group of people.
This definition of a report applies to both businesses and schools.
When a teacher or student thinks of the term "report," they think:
- Book Report
- Progress Report
- Report Card
- Science Experiment Report
Businesspeople, on the other hand, think of:
- Sales Reports
- Marketing Reports
- Progress Reports
- Social Media Reports
- Market Research Reports
- Weekly Reports
- Monthly Reports
- Annual Reports
- And many more...
If you think about it though, all the reports above fit under the same description. It’s just the environment where it’s produced and presented that’s different.
In this post, we’ll take a look at the most common report examples in both education and business.
And to help you out, here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit report templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:
1 Progress Report Examples
A progress report is a business report shows how a specific project or plan is progressing. It shows and visualizes a variety of the following things:
- If goals are being met or not
- When a specific task needs to be either repeated or discarded
- A timeframe of task completed and results
- New or adjusted goals created with data from the ongoing process
Good visualization tools for progress reports include comparison widgets showing the goal against what was achieved.
Another type of progress report is for school-aged children. Teachers put together progress reports and report cards of what they learn in class throughout the year.
Below is a Visme template for a preschool progress report. Teachers can print this out , make copies and send home with the kids. Alternatively, and as a way to save paper, they can fill it in digitally and send the parents a link to the report published online.
Working on multiple progress reports can be nerve-wracking. But with Visme’s Dynamic Fields , you can easily update information throughout your reports from a single source.
Customize this progress report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
2 Sales Report Examples
A sales report showcases the results of a sales campaign. These are presented by the sales team to the stakeholders of a company or the other teams like marketing and content marketing. It’s usually presented at the end of a campaign, otherwise it would be a sales progress report.
Sales reports are improved with data visualizations like line charts, bar charts and histograms. These can be presented as live reports , presentation slides, like an infographic or even a document.
The sales report sample template below comes with enough slides with charts to get your data organized nicely. Using the Visme editor, add slides in between the sample template slides to add explanatory content if necessary.
Take advantage of Visme analytics to see how your report is performing. You can monitor key metrics like views, unique visits, average time, average completion and more.
Customize this sales report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
3 Market Research Report Examples
A market research report is all about showing the results of a market research audit . The main idea is to describe the competitors, the ideal client, the current atmosphere in the market and ideas on how to implement a successful marketing strategy.
This reporting example uses visualizations like pie charts , maps, percentage widgets and regular visuals like photography or illustration.
Customize this market research report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
Learn more about how to visualize statistics in your reports by watching this video.
4 “The State Of” Report Examples
Similar to market research reports, this type of report can be about any topic whatsoever. The research will go in-depth, with surveys and studies that show trends and statistics that are then visualized and presented.
The similarity between these reports is their title, it always starts with “The State Of”. For example, SlackHQ released the State of Work Report this year while other companies do the same for other topics.
The Visme sample template below was created as a State of the Ecommerce Fashion Industry but can easily be customized for your needs.
Customize this report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
5 Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly Report Examples
Similar to daily progress reports , weekly, monthly and quarterly reports are constants in a business setting. They’re usually more generalized than a progress report, which is about a specific project.
Weekly and monthly reports are sometimes condensed sections of different analytics reports put together into one document. Other times it can be a live dashboard that shows each week’s or month’s activity.
The sample template below is a monthly report for sustainable development. It’s in document format, which you can print or share as a PDF. With a few clicks, you can share your reports with superiors or team members or publish them on the web.
Customize this monthly report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
6 Annual Report Examples
An annual report is the cumulative data about a company for an entire year. These reports are much larger than others because they have a lot more information. Many companies create beautifully designed annual reports to show off their data.
Annual reports come in all shapes and sizes. Like printed books, as slide presentations, as scrollable infographics or even entire websites . With Visme, you can create many different types of annual reports easily.
The sample annual report template below is a slide presentation.
Customize this annual report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
This sample template is in document format.
7 Forecast Report Examples
Another business-minded report is the forecast report. This type of report is similar to the “state of the” report but instead of being about the present, it’s about the future.
Many well-established companies create forecast reports because they are trendsetters and want to stay ahead of other companies in the industry.
Such is the case for The Pantone Institute. They publish color trend forecast reports every year, and for seasons and themes as well.
If you publish a forecast report to set yourself up as an influential entity in your niche, it’s best to promote it and share it as much as possible. Also, be sure that what you’re presenting as a forecast has good informational backing it, and you aren’t just making it up.
The sample report below is a document format forecast report for a tech company.
Customize this forecast report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
8 Book Report Examples
In the educational aspect, reports are a little different. A book report, for example, is meant to show that a student has read a book and can give a summary of it to the class and the teacher.
There doesn’t tend to be much data visualization involved, but graphic organizers can help add visuals to the written content.
Book reports can be set up as presentations or as printed PDFs . It really depends on the teacher and what they assign to the student.
The Visme template below is a book report slide presentation ready to customize with the information the student gathered from the book.
Customize this book report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
9 Scientific Finding Report Examples
Scientific finding reports can be used in the classroom as a way to teach students about the scientific method and how to present the findings.
In a more professional scenario, scientists and researchers will create these types of reports to show their superiors or the people funding their work.
These reporting examples are generally full of data visualizations, along with photographs of the experiments – if there were any – as they progress. In some cases, there can be illustrations and video embedded into the report to add extra visuals.
The reporting example below is a study about stress in the workplace. It’s not a detailed visualization of microbes in a lab, but the report writing format is the same.
10 Analysis Report Examples
Here’s another standout example of report template. An analysis report in school is mostly used in Literature classes. The main idea is to analyze a book or a group of books and analyze them. This can be done with one analysis term or in a more general sense.
This type of report works well with graphic organizers instead of data visualizations.
An analysis report can also be considered a visual analytical essay because it follows the same format. There must be a main idea and thesis to begin with. The content must then reinforce or counter the thesis.
The sample report below is about the idea that going to university isn’t for everyone. The slides are in a modern creative style and will look great with any content.
Customize this analysis report template and make it your own! Edit and Download
Which Report Example is Right for You?
Now that you’ve seen all the different report examples and what each one is used for, it’s time to create your own ! Put together all your content, data and notes, and get ready to make it all look amazing.
Open up your Visme dashboard or simply click on any of the examples of templates in this post to get started. If you need more images, you can find plenty inside the Visme library. If you want to add data visualizations, just use the graph engine !
Hey marketers! Need to create scroll-stopping visual content fast?
- Transform your visual content with Visme’s easy-to-use content creation platform
- Produce beautiful, effective marketing content quickly even without an extensive design skillset
- Inspire your sales team to create their own content with branded templates for easy customization
Sign up. It’s free.
Bookmark this post and you’ll never have to wonder about report examples again, then check out our video below to learn even more about how Visme makes document design easy.
Create stunning reports faster using Visme
Recommended content for you:
Speak Loudly. Speak Visually.
Receive weekly practical tips on how to communicate visually, right in your inbox.
Please leave this field empty.
Create Stunning Content!
Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.
About the Author
Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com
Learn / Guides / UX research guide
Back to guides
7 powerful examples of UX research in action
After a lengthy planning and designing process, you’ve turned your website or app vision into a reality. But maybe you've noticed that despite its visual appeal, conversions are low while bounce rates keep soaring. Often, a poor user experience (UX) is to blame, affecting your brand perceptions and customer conversions.
Last updated
So, how can you create a frictionless, user-centric experience? Strong UX research and smart use of UX research tools are key.
While the research process can be a challenge, analyzing how other brands have successfully conducted UX research can inspire your own approach. This article dives into seven detailed case studies and shows you how to use UX research tools to identify and solve UX challenges and delight your customers.
Empower your team to do great UX research
Use Hotjar for effective end-to-end UX research campaigns that help you deeply understand user needs
Why and when should you perform UX research?
UX research is the strategic process of analyzing target users to understand their needs, behavior, and experience. Teams use UX research, feedback tools, and experimentation techniques to collect contextual insights.
Then, they translate these insights into a user-centric design that generates strong conversions and higher user retention rates.
UX research offers several other benefits, including:
Helping create customer delight: by understanding how users behave, you can design your product more accessibly and empathetically. UX research equips teams to create tailored experiences, maximizing customer satisfaction and improving product experience (PX).
Replacing guesswork with data-driven insights : UX research involves collecting and assessing qualitative and quantitative data to make decisions based on comprehensive insights, rather than gut feelings.
Providing insight into the user’s needs : the better you know your audience's pain points, the better you can design a product that truly addresses their needs. UX research tells you exactly where your users struggle—so you can come up with solutions.
Helping you achieve critical KPIs : research methods like concept validation and user feedback ensure every iteration moves you toward better user engagement, conversions, increased retention, and reduced churn, positively impacting your revenue.
The benefits of UX research are clear. So when should you start the process?
Since you are creating a product for someone else and not for yourself, any time is good to start UX research. The beginning doesn't have to be sophisticated. It can start simple and evolve, adapting to the amount/complexity of the questions about the users and the resources of your business.
You only need curiosity, some time, and a willingness to base your product on facts and not assumptions.
Let’s take a look at how seven companies aced UX research and produced incredible results.
7 UX research examples to get inspired
UX research offers you opportunities for conversion rate optimization and personalization that can significantly increase business growth and enhance customer satisfaction.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t always need a dedicated UX research team: a cost-effective tech stack can do most of the heavy lifting. Product experience insights tools like Hotjar help you assess your users’ experience, measure their behavior, and garner constructive feedback for UX analysis .
Here are seven examples of great UX research with the help of product experience insights tools to get you inspired.
1. Zenprint: 7% reduction in bounce rate
Zenprint provides order and wholesale digital printing services in the Australian market.
Zenprint’s biggest challenge was identifying factors leading to drop-offs on their website. The brand’s marketing team struggled to figure out:
Where people spent their time
What users were interested in
What caused them to drop off
They wanted actionable insights into how users interacted with their site .
Action plan
Zenprint’s marketing team leveraged Hotjar (👋) to analyze web performance and understand user behavior at a granular level. They used:
Funnels to locate the exact drop-off points in the customer journey
Session Recordings to understand how each user behaved on the site, tracing mouse and scroll movements to see which elements users click on
Heatmaps to view color-coded representations of popular and unpopular site elements to help discover areas where users spend the most time and determine those that need improvement
This action plan helped the team zero in on their pricing table as a major blocker.
Once Zenprint identified the problem, the next step was split testing multiple layouts to optimize the pricing table. With a simple change in their pricing plan, the Zenprint team reduced drop-off rates by 7% and boosted its conversion rate by 2%.
Key takeaways
For stellar UX research, collect real-time insights from users across different stages of the conversion funnel to identify bottlenecks. Supplement quantitative analytics with qualitative feedback by analyzing Hotjar Recordings and Heatmaps to understand user behavior.
2. Matalan: 400% ROI
Matalan is a British fashion and homeware retail and ecommerce brand.
Without qualitative UX research to interpret data points, Matalan's UX team was forced to make decisions based on gut feelings, relying on quantitative data alone, which gave them limited visibility. The checkout process was showing high drop-offs and they weren’t sure why.
When Matalan migrated to a responsive website, its UX team used Hotjar to record and assess user responses to this change, and compare performance through A/B testing. They also viewed Session Recordings that flagged bugs and glitches early in the migration process.
They used Hotjar's Feedback tools to collect user feedback in real-time to capture the customer’s voice and make product changes to improve the user experience. Combined with user recordings, these provided a complete overview of the user journey, which helped eliminate areas of friction.
Using recordings to closely monitor user behavior, Matalan optimized its checkout process and increased conversions by 1.23%.
They created a bespoke experience dashboard by combining qualitative insights gathered by Hotjar with Google Data Studio analytics for a comprehensive UX research process.
Instead of relying solely on numbers, collect user perspectives to add depth to your UX research . This concrete feedback can make your team aware of flaws in the user experience so you can proactively offer fixes.
3. Materials Market: 3x conversions
Materials Market is a UK-based marketplace for construction material manufacturers and customers.
Materials Market’s co-founder wanted to optimize their website experience by improving three problem areas:
Poorly placed calls to action (CTAs), where mobile users couldn’t see the CTA clearly enough to click on it
Customer drop-offs at the checkout step because users only wanted to check the delivery time
A complicated cookie policy that caused visitors to bounce as soon as they landed on the website
Materials Market used Hotjar Recordings and Heatmaps to dig deeper into these UX research issues . The result was a gradual upgrade of the website to meet—and exceed—customer expectations. Here’s what happened:
They improved the visibility of CTAs with changes to font, color, and design. The team also included a rating widget next to the CTAs to display social proof.
They removed the need to set up an account to place an order and added an estimated delivery date for every product
They implemented design changes in the cookie policy pop-up to make it 30% bigger with better color and copy. They also placed the banner on the top of the page.
Redesigning the checkout flow decreased drop-offs by 86%. On the flip side, the conversion rate more than tripled to 1.6% —massively boosting yearly revenue by more than £10,000.
UX research tools like recordings are a great way to understand user behavior on your website—you can sort and filter recordings with Hotjar by relevance. This can boost your UX research efforts without relying heavily on technical expertise and development knowledge.
4. Totally Promotional: increased sales while enhancing UX
Totally Promotional is a US-based manufacturer and retailer that produces customized promotional products for brands.
Totally Promotional wanted to evaluate on-site user behavior and improve the brand's UX quality but was struggling to collect meaningful user data that offered a complete insight into the user experience.
Relying on Google Analytics alone, the team lacked qualitative feedback to interpret customer needs and design empathetically.
The team added Hotjar to its tech stack to get a better view of user interaction and web experience. They used Hotjar Heatmaps to assess where users spent their time and dropped off—identifying underperforming pages and bugs.
Hotjar’s Feedback and Survey tools were useful in capturing Voice of the Customer (VoC) insights, allowing Totally Promotional to examine why users behaved the way they did. They also watched Session Recordings to pinpoint where buyers felt stuck in the order process.
This mix of UX research tools removed the guesswork from Totally Promotional’s website optimization process. The team took an evidence-based approach and incorporated both minor tweaks and significant updates in the ecommerce storefront design.
However, the most crucial action they took was changing the order process for their branded pens page, which tripled sales for this product.
Behavioral data and user perspectives are both necessary for excellent UX research. Intuitive tools like Hotjar’s Feedback widget can help you collate meaningful information to supercharge your UX research campaign and implement strategic website changes.
5. Hussle: fixed one bug every week
Hussle is a subscription-based network of gyms, spas, and digital fitness solutions.
Hussle’s biggest challenge was high customer churn: the brand’s product team wanted to better understand why this was happening and deploy UX research to reduce churn with an unparalleled product experience.
Hussle’s team leveraged Surveys and Recordings to find answers as to why users were leaving.
It turned out there were three core reasons behind churn:
High subscription cost
Changes in the user’s location
Purchase of direct gym membership
Deploying UX research tools to understand churn led to an improved UX and user interface and boosted Hussle’s growth. The team saw great results, including:
A preemptive bug fix that would’ve hindered the buying process
Streamlined the bug-fixing process by detecting and deleting at least one bug weekly
Gathered meaningful insights from users through 1000+ survey responses and over 73,000 seconds of Hotjar Session Recordings
The team has continued to use Session Recordings and Heatmaps to stay one step ahead—whether detecting bugs or finding where users get stuck.
User feedback is a great way to understand the reasons behind churn so you can address them and improve retention . Additionally, you can also gather data to proactively fix bugs and improve UX.
6. Turum-burum: +55% conversion rate
Turum-burum is a digital UX design agency that provides conversion rate optimization strategies for clients like Intertop, one of Ukraine's biggest shoe retailers.
Intertop saw a rapid increase in traffic on their website and used Turum-burum’s services to maximize conversions from this influx of visitors. They used UX research to address three crucial challenges:
Simplifying and enhancing the customer journey once a visitor lands on Intertop’s homepage
Testing and implementing UX changes as quickly as possible
Anticipating and mitigating any potential risks resulting from UX changes
Using Hotjar’s exit-intent Surveys , the Turum-burum team identified a major problem in the conversion funnel: their complicated checkout process.
Hotjar helped the team in two main ways:
They used the user feedback coming in through Surveys to prioritize improvements
They used Heatmaps and Session Recordings to understand customer blockers and pain points
Drawing on these UX research insights, the team decided to add a few small but crucial details to Intertop’s storefront, such as filters, intuitive product lists, and an improved checkout flow.
Product experience insights helped the team pinpoint exact bottlenecks and run feedback-driven experiments.
These changes skyrocketed Intertop's conversion rate by 54.68% and reduced bounce rates by 13.35%. They also enhanced the product page and lists to increase conversion from the cart to the checkout page by 36.6%.
Mapping the customer journey through your sales funnel is a critical part of successful ecommerce UX research. Monitor user needs at every stage through heatmaps, recordings, and feedback tools.
7. eShopWorld: better UX and conversion fluctuation awareness
eShopWorld delivers global ecommerce solutions to help brands scale their business at the international level.
One of eShopWorld’s key services is conversion rate optimization. They monitor conversions for every client to identify drops and discrepancies.
However, the team didn't have a reliable tool for evaluating user behavior and countering occasional dips in the conversion rate.
eShopWorld used Hotjar Feedback tools on its checkout page to collect real-time user opinions: customers were able to flag issues right before ordering, and the eShopWorld team could dig deeper into understanding the context behind their comments via Session Recordings .
Heatmaps also provided actionable insights into customer behavior so the team could holistically review user issues and prioritize them according to their impact on the UX.
eShopWorld studied all the user feedback to get to the root of key problems. They used research data to plan and communicate UX design and user flow changes to tackle each blocker.
The team also analyzed Hotjar Heatmaps and watched Session Recordings to assess whether UX redesigns and changes produced the intended effect for users.
UX research is a continuous process of striving to understand your customers and their preferences at every stage of design and development. By using research tools to identify key issues and dig deeper into their context, teams can produce user-centric interfaces and make data-informed decisions.
UX research is paramount to product success
For your site to attract quality traffic, deliver seamless buying experiences, and move the needle on conversion rates, you need to understand how your users behave and what they expect.
UX research tools can help you stay on top of your customer needs. Feature-packed PX insights tools allow you to easily observe user behavior, synthesize user feedback, and perform experiments to drive product growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ux research involve.
UX research is the process of studying the target audience to examine user behavior and identify opportunities for improving designs and workflows. UX research typically involves:
Monitoring user behavior
Assessing what users like and dislike based on their activity
Collecting feedback and suggestions for potential bugs or friction areas
Experimenting to see user reactions and validate any design improvements
Asking users for feedback to bring the users’ voice into the design and development process.
What are some UX research methods?
UX research varies in terms of methodology. You can use qualitative, quantitative, behavioral, and attitudinal methods for conducting your research. Each method uncovers unique insights about the user experience, such as:
Qualitative : why and how users behave on a page
Quantitative : numerical assessment of their activity
Behavioral : what users do on a website/product
Attitudinal : how users perceive a website/product
Why do you need UX research?
UX research lays the groundwork for successful UX design strategies. It helps you understand your customers and their needs to create more empathetic designs tailored to your audience.
It’s an essential factor for achieving goals such as lowering churn, bounce rate, cart abandonment, and improving UX. By helping you iterate your site or product informed by user feedback, UX research allows you to create a bulletproof website that meets user expectations.
UX research tools
Previous chapter
Guide index
Get Access to ALL Templates & Editors for Just $2 a month.
- Google Docs
- Apple Pages
- Illustrator (AI)
- MS Publisher
- Vectors (EPS)
- Google Sheets
- Apple Numbers
- Power Point
- Backgrounds
- Coloring Pages
- Illustrations
- Video Online
9+ Sample Research Report Formats
A research report is a document presenting brief description and the results of a study or a research done which includes testing, experimentation, and analysis of various subject matters in a report format . A research report can be used in publishing journals or articles; getting a grant or financial aid; or presenting implications or recommendations for clinical practices, education, or business.
- Report Samples
- Report Sample Doc
Formal Report Template
Professional Report Template
Sample Research Report Formats
Sample market research.
Commodity Report
Company Research Example
Formal Research Report
What is a Research Report
- Abstract. This is the overview of the research study that serves as the executive summary of report of the different parts of the report.
- Introduction. This provides the key question the researcher is trying to answer as well as any relevant literature associated with the subject matter.
- Methodology. This presents how the research is conducted and allows the readers to evaluate the quality of the study and other researchers to validate the findings.
- Results. This contains the data which shows the results and findings generated by the investigation and experimentation done during the research study.
- Discussion. This is where the results are interpreted and compared to other existing and similar literature in order to identify how they are going to be applied.
- References. This is the list of each author, paper, existing methods, and structures cited and references in the research report.
Characteristics of a Great Research Report
Sample annual.
Primary Report
Action Research Example
Simple Research Progress
Tips for Writing a Great Research Report
- Be objective. Your report should present the subject matter clearly as well as its logical analysis in order to solve intellectual problems associated with the research study.
- Avoid grammatical mistakes. Your report should be free from grammatical mistakes. You can also minimize the use of technical language as readers may not be familiar with them.
- Use visual aids. Use graphs or tables for results and findings to visually show your data. This will help your readers understand and compare related data easier.
- Be accountable. Use the present tense of verbs and an active voice to show accountability of the data presented. It helps imply that all the data are accurate and true.
- Use proper structure. The layout of your report should be in accordance with the proper standards. The finding should be readily available and the index must be prepared and appended.
More in Report Templates
14+ FREE & Premium Research Report - Download NOW
Beautifully Designed, Easily Editable Templates to Get your Work Done Faster & Smarter.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
The information presented in this report has been gathered from secondary sources, and from Australian Bureau of Statistics' data. The report has been prepared for submission as Unit 4 of the Tertiary Studies Course at Victoria University. Version 1.0 Concurrent Study Research Report Page 2
Most scientific research reports, irrespective of the field, parallel the method of scientific reasoning. That is: the ... The reader will then be the judge of whether to read the full report or not. Were the report to appear in the primary ... examples, and provides photographs from laboratory notebooks of famous scientists.
An effective research report has—at least—the following four characteristics: ... should be written out in full where it first appears in the report—even if it will be familiar to most readers, even if you think it is obvious or common knowledge. ... case letters for sample values, follow that convention in writing your report. ...
Market Research Report: Brand Analysis Our first example shares the results of a brand study. To do so, a survey has been performed on a sample of 1333 people, information that we can see in detail on the left side of the board, summarizing the gender, age groups, and geolocation. **click to enlarge**
Academic Research Report Template Investment Research Report Template Brand Research Report Template Details File Format Google Docs MS Word Apple Pages Size: A4, US Download Academic Research Report Template Details File Format Google Docs MS Word Apple Pages Size: A4, US Download Investment Research Report Template Details File Format Google Docs
Example of Methodology in Research Paper The words methodology, procedure, and approach are the same. They indicate the approach pursued by the researcher while conducting research to accomplish the goal through research. The methodology is the bloodline of the research paper. A practical or assumed procedure is used to conduct the methodology.
Quarterly reports tend to be long and full of data. This free business report template has eight pages to get you started in the right direction. Use the overall layout of the pages to format your text and data in one stylish document. Embed bigger data visualizations from Tableau or Power BI with our third-party media integration.
Sample Selection The respondents involved in this survey were employees working in companies located in Central Texas. A nonprobability, convenience sampling technique was used to collect primary data. Each member of the research team was responsible for distributing three questionnaires to members of the sample. To ensure confidentiality,
For example, the company's stock price is $100, but you believe it's worth only $50 because it's about to report earnings 80% lower than expectations. Therefore, you recommend shorting the stock. You also recommend purchasing call options at an exercise price of $125 to limit your losses to 25% if the stock moves in the opposite direction.
3+ Short Research Report Examples 1. Short Research Report Template static.springer.com Details File Format PDF Size: 120 KB Download 2. Basic Short Research Report smp.org Details File Format PDF Size: 29 KB Download 3. General Short Research Report ocw.mit.edu Details File Format PDF Size: 342 KB Download 4. Short Research Assessment Report
An example of a formal report depends on the topic and purpose of the document. Here are several examples: Compliance report A compliance report documents how an organization is or isn't complying with specific regulations or laws.
Equity Research Report Example Below is an example of an equity research report on Kraft Foods. As you can see in the images below, the analyst clearly lays out the recommendation, target price, recent updates, investment thesis, valuation, and risks. To learn more, check out CFI's Valuation Modeling Classes. Additional Resources
Sample Report in Standard Report Writing Format 6 Types of Reports There are a selection of different reports you might need to create. Each of these will follow a similar reporting writing format to what we've covering in this post. 1. Annual Reports The first type of report we'll cover is an annual report.
For example, give examples of questionnaire items. Include the reliability (e.g. alpha values) for the measure (s). Procedure Describe the precise procedure you followed when carrying out your research i.e. exactly what you did. Describe in sufficient detail to allow for replication of findings.
Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples. Published on September 9, 2022 by Tegan George.Revised on November 11, 2022. It can be difficult to know where to start when writing your thesis or dissertation.One way to come up with some ideas or maybe even combat writer's block is to check out previous work done by other students on a similar thesis or dissertation topic to yours.
6 Annual Report Examples An annual report is the cumulative data about a company for an entire year. These reports are much larger than others because they have a lot more information. Many companies create beautifully designed annual reports to show off their data. Annual reports come in all shapes and sizes.
Here are seven examples of great UX research with the help of product experience insights tools to get you inspired. 1. Zenprint: 7% reduction in bounce rate. Zenprint provides order and wholesale digital printing services in the Australian market.
EUF | European University Foundation
You can check out Sample Research Report Formats templates for ideas to prepare a report for your research work. Sample Market Research 4newideas.com Details File Format PDF Size: 152 KB Download Commodity Report religareonline.com Details File Format PDF Size: 3 MB Download Company Research Example investorsareidiots.com Details File Format PDF
schemes, which give more information about the national samples. All quotes in this report can be identified by country and case. GER_A, for example, refers to case A from the German sample. The case scheme in the appendix gives basic information on the respective interviewee. Benefits of Lifelong Learning (BeLL) Agreement n. 2011 - 4075 / 001 ...