3/4/21

Drafting your Research report

Dr Jonathan Ivy

Market research needs planning…

And what you produce must be clear and

concise – address the management problem!

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Your research report

• You have designed the perfect data
collection procedure.
• Every element of the design, sampling,
questionnaire and analysis addresses the
research objectives.
• Your have tortured the data and it has
confessed everything that it had to give.
• There is only one thing left to do….

DRAFT A REPORT THAT IS FIT FOR PURPOSE

The importance of the report and its

presentation

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Why is your report so important

For the following reasons, the report and its presentation
are important parts of the marketing research project:
1. They are the tangible products of the research effort.
2. Management decisions are guided by the report and the
presentation.
3. The involvement of many marketing managers in the project
is limited to the written report and the oral presentation.
4. Management's decision to undertake marketing research in
the future or to use the particular research supplier again will
be influenced by the perceived usefulness of the report and
the presentation.

Your report is your product

• A Market Research agency’s report is its
product. They need to market it and in so
doing satisfy the client’s needs.
• You use the marketing mix (4Ps) for
marketing a tangible product, why is a
research report any different.
• This about what it is your client is buying and
make sure you present and package your
hard work well!

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The Report Preparation and Presentation

Process
Problem Definition, Approach, Research
Design, and Fieldwork

Data Analysis

Interpretations, Conclusions, and

Recommendations

Report Preparation

Oral Presentation

Reading of the Report by the Client

Research Follow-Up

Report Format
• Title page
• Table of contents
– List of tables
– List of graphs
– List of appendices
– List of exhibits
• Executive summary
– Research aims
– Methodology
– Main findings
– Conclusions and recommendations

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Report format
• Introduction
– Problem definition
– Background to the problem & problem statement
– Research Objective

• Research design.
– Type of research
– Information needs (BADI)
– Secondary data sources
– Primary data sources (Qual and quant phases)
– Questionnaire design and testing
– Sampling
– fieldwork

Report format
• Data Analysis & Findings
– Sample description (both univariate and bivariate) – Demographics
– Main univariate analysis – general descriptive report
– Bivariate analysis – link behaviours and attitudes to demographics
– Multivariate analysis

• Limitations.
• Conclusions & recommendations
– Address each research question/objective in order.

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Report format
• Appendices
– Research brief
– Letter of authorization
– Data collection tools
• Questionnaire
• Interview guides
– Sampling plan
– Any ethical approval (research with children)
– Supporting output
• These are just that SUPPORTING, so NOT include graphs or tables in here that the
client must look at to understand your report.
• This could be NICE TO KNOW material.
• Core tables, charts and diagrams MUST be in the body of the report

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Report writing
• Readers. A report should be written for a specific reader or readers: the
marketing managers who will use the results.
• Easy to follow. The report should be easy to follow. It should be structured
logically and written clearly.
• Presentable and professional appearance. The look of a report is
important.
• Objective. Objectivity is a virtue that should guide report writing. The rule
is, "Tell it like it is."
• Reinforce text with tables and graphs. It is important to reinforce key
information in the text with tables, graphs, pictures, maps, and other visual
devices.
• Terse. A report should be terse and concise. Yet, brevity should not be
achieved at the expense of completeness.

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Executive summary
• The ES is an extremely important element of the
report, because it is often the only portion of the
report that executives read!
• The summary must concisely describe the
management problem and the research purpose.
• It must also tell the reader about the approach to
the research, the research design, and
• A summary of the main findings, conclusions and
recommendations

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Introduction
• This describes the problem definition.
• The background to the problem, highlights of the
discussions that have taken place with decision
makers and discussion on the secondary data.
• Discuss any relevant theoretical underpinning or
analytical models that might be used.
• It must contain a clear statement of the management
decision problem, research questions and
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Any hypotheses would be placed in this section as well

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Research design
• Approach to the research, this is a broad approach
that was adopted in addressing the research.
• This section will also contain a description of any
theoretical foundations that guided the research
• The research design:
– Research approach
– Information needs
– Secondary data
– Primary data sources
– Questionnaire design
– Sampling
– Fieldwork

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Data analysis & Findings

• Start the section with a brief introduction to your
approach to the analysis and techniques used in non-
technical terms.
• The Results follow; this is the longest part of the
report and may comprise of a number of chapters
(each linked to a separate research objective).
• There could be further subsections based on market
segments or geographic location, brand etc.
• Each component needs to ensure that the research
problem is addressed.

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Data analysis & Findings

• Start with the sample. The client needs to be
confident that the data that you have gathered is
relevant to the study. If you can compare your
data with what you know the population to look
like and describe how it might be different (and
the implications if they are different).
• Most of this will focus on demographic
characteristics of the sample.
• The ‘D’ in the acronym BADI

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Data analysis & Findings

• Univariate analysis:
– General description of Behaviours, Attitudes and Interests.
• Bivariate analysis:
– Here we link the ADI elements to the demographics, so 2
or more variables are reported on at the same time
• Cross tabulations
• Comparison of means
• Correlations and simple regressions
• Multivariate analysis
• Multiple regression
• Factor analysis etc

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Limitations
• All research tends to have limitations in terms of
time, budget and various other organisational
constraints.
• While you are admitting these they can not be an
excuse for your poor planning or skills.
• Some errors may well need discussion
• At the end of the day, these should not erode
confidence in your report (they will not use you again
if it does!)

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Conclusions and recommendations

• You MUST interpret the results. It is not

enough to just present the tables and graphs!
What do they mean and what are the
implications for the development of strategy?
• Not all research projects require
recommendations, but most do; they need to
be feasible, practical, actionable and directly
useable inputs into managerial decision
making.

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Guidelines for tables

• Remember SPSS produces a lot of numbers.
Not all of them we will use in our report.
• Few SPSS tables can be used in a report in the
format they SPSS produces them. Almost ALL
need to be reformatted to make them easy to
read.
• Remove sections of SPSS output that you will
not be using.
• Use colour, bold fonts, italics and annotations
to assist the reader in accessing the data

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Guidelines for Graphs: Pie charts

• In a pie chart, the area of each section, as a
percentage of the total area of the circle, reflects the
percentage associated with the value of a specific
variable.

• A pie chart is not useful for displaying relationships

over time or relationships among several variables.
• As a general guideline, a pie chart should not require
more than seven sections.

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Guidelines for Graphs: Line charts

• A line chart connects a series of data points using
continuous lines
• This is an attractive way of illustrating trends and
changes over time
• Several series can be compared on the same chart,
and forecasts, interpolations, and extrapolations can
be shown
• Do not use a line chart for discrete data (nominal),
rather use a bar chart.

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Line charts for continuous data

Brand liking Annual sales
7 6

6 5

5 4

4
3

3
2
This chart is NOT
2 appropriate
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sh

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er
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Ef
rl i

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ols

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Am

Ca
dw

Do

Fo

Gr

YTD
Bu

Series 1 Col umn2 Col umn3 Series 1 Series 2 Col umn2

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Guidelines for Graphs: Bar charts

• A bar chart displays data in various bars that
may be positioned horizontally or vertically.

• Useful for discrete data.

• There are a variety of bar charts in SPSS – use

the chart that tells the clearest story

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Guidelines for Graphs

• A picture tells a 1000 words. Use graphs where
that can replace words and tables.

• Annotate your graphs with text boxes and

arrows to highlight aspects that you want the
client to focus on.

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Guidelines for Tables

• Most of SPSS tables need editing before they can
be used in your chart.

• Take for example Independent sample t-tests.

The descriptive and inferential are in different
tables – merge them with the elements that are
useful to your discussion.

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SPSS output above, use edited table below

Subject Gender N Mean Std Levene’s Test t df Sig
Dev F
sig

Parseltongue Wizard 185 4.55 3.33 0.383 .536 2.19 408 .029

Witch 225 3.84 3.17

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Your report
• Addresses the Problem – The problem being addressed
should be clearly identified and the relevant background
information provided.
• The research design should be clearly described in non-
technical terms.
• Execution of the Research Procedures – The author should
pay special attention to the manner in which the research
procedures were executed and presented.
• Numbers and statistics reported in tables and graphs should
be examined carefully and presented clearly.

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Your report
• Interpretation and Conclusions – The interpretation of the basic results
should be differentiated from the results per se. Any conclusions or
recommendations made without a specification of the underlying
assumptions or limitations should be treated cautiously by the reader.
• Generalizability – It is the responsibility of the researcher to provide
evidence regarding the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the
findings.
• Disclosure – The reader should carefully examine whether the spirit in
which the report was written indicates an honest and complete
disclosure of the research procedures and results.

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Appendices
• These are very much supporting documents.
• DO NOT expect the client to look at these. Managers are
busy people, some might only read the Executive
Summary!!!!
• The report must be readable and complete without having
to flip back and forth into the appendix.
• The appendix will include:
– Research brief
– Letter of authorization from the client
– Ethical approval
– Questionnaire/Interview guides
– Sample description
– Supporting tables and charts
– Examples of artifacts/photos from the research

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