As 2023 is upon us, you may be wondering if there are some under-the-radar places you can explore … well look no further than Stockport. Yes, I said Stockport! Earlier this month the Guardian described Stockport as having “something special in the air” It goes on to say …

“It is the DIY, grassroots activity in food, fashion, art and music found in the architecturally striking old town, that is exciting early adopters and generating media notices about, “one of the coolest little corners of the country”.

I may be predisposed to agree, being born and bred in Stockport, but also may be one of its harshest critics, guilty of not seeing or engaging with the newfound indie vibe Stockport is creating. I haven’t been to “Where the Light gets in” restaurant or walked to the independent shops of Underbank. I am even guilty of not having been to the Polish bakery in the beautiful old market hall – I am told it is mind-blowing.

This is all good news for businesses like ours trying to attract the London client. Often overshadowed by Manchester, only 6 miles north, Stockport has struggled to gain traction as a destination town. Aspect Viewing Facility with purpose-built studios for market research lies a mile south of Stockport town centre. With a diverse population at its door and all trains from London to Manchester stopping at Stockport (it’s true, by an Act of Parliament in 1840, it was decreed that all through-trains using Stockport Viaduct must stop at Stockport Station), it offers clients, not only great insight from the local population but also an interesting and fun place to visit.

The Guardian concludes with……

“For Benji Taylor, co-founder of Bask (a bar, gig venue, comedy club and late-night, DJ-led hang-out), the contrast with the Stockport of his youth is profound. It came 12th in an early-2000s poll for the book Crap Towns, so it is “great to see it turning full circle”.

He adds: “We did a run of ‘Stockport Isn’t Shit’ bags with Hug & Co. They sold out in a day. People are as proud of Stockport as they’ve ever been.”

Book your projects into Aspect and come and see what Stockport has to offer. Our attentive and friendly staff will assist with any enquiries and help with local suggestions and directions.

Besides its location, Aspect has consistently been voted as one of the Best Viewing facilities in the country with this year being no exception, with Aspect winning the coveted ‘Best Viewing Facility, Technology and Innovation’ award at the Market Research Society Operation Awards.

As London becomes more of an island, separate from the rest of England, it becomes of paramount importance to represent and include the opinions of the wider population. With train strikes and the cost of living making it difficult to access the capital, it becomes more distant and irrelevant to the 85% of the population who live outside. The Government it seems, talk endlessly about “levelling up” and even has a dedicated minister, but what does that mean and how is it being implemented? Brands need to make sure they are appealing to these core consumers who spend in the economy and make choices about who gets their spend, every day. It could be argued that the explosion of online focus groups means that a national representation can be easily included and this is true, but how does that underrepresented person in Stockport engage in these discussions without perhaps feeling they want to air their different opinion, feel shy or that they don’t actually belong in that session.

Using Viewing Facilities like Aspect in Stockport, South Manchester, means that you get valuable insight from fresh participants living in the wider community. Stockport is a great example of a Northern town with a diverse population. From blue-collar workers to mums on mat leave, all types of participants can be sourced. It is also only 6 miles from Manchester city centre so can host urban dwellers too. Also, it is on the fringe of the “Golden Triangle” of Cheshire. The “Golden Triangle” (sometimes called the footballer belt) refers to an affluent area of Cheshire towns and villages including Alderley Edge, Prestbury and Wilmslow. This allows access to an affluent market of participants who differ from their London counterparts.

Aspect will assist from beginning to end with venue, recruitment and hosting. For our attentive and friendly staff, nothing is too much trouble and you will be glad you made the trip. Besides its fabulous location, Aspect has also consistently been rated as one of the Best Viewing Facilities in the country. This year was no exception with Aspect winning ‘Best Viewing Facility, Technology and Innovation’ in the Market Research Society Operations Awards.

View Stockport on the 2021 census data from the ONS

We are thrilled to announce that Aspect won the MRS Operations Award for Best Viewing Facility – Technology and Innovation. This was in recognition of our recently launched Healthcare Suite which replicates a number of hospital settings so that medical professionals and researchers alike, can feel immersed in a familiar environment.

The suite is filled with familiar items, such as our functional hospital bed, life-sized mannequin/patient, saline drips and the other stainless steel furnishings you’d expect in a healthcare setting. The benefit of this is that it provides a real-world context for any healthcare research. Medical professionals don’t have to imagine or explain the tools they use, human factor studies on new devices are done with participants in the surroundings they would normally be in. The overall effect is that researchers can be certain they are gaining deeper, more authentic insights than in a traditional viewing facility setting, giving them greater confidence in their findings.

However, this award means more to us than just the additional service offering. For us, this award, is also recognition for the creation of the suite itself. Our Healthcare Suite was not something that could be bought off the shelf. Likewise it wasn’t designed or built by external contractors following a brief. Our Healthcare Suite was conceived by our team, designed by our team and built by those same people too. This award means as much to us for how it was created, as much as it does for all the wonderful feedback we receive on the finished product.

For more information on our Healthcare Suite please contact the team at [email protected]

By Gareth Dyson

The British Government has recently announced some important changes on the Covid precautions which will come into effect on Monday 19th of July. In line with this we wanted to let you know how these changes will apply to the way you can conduct research at Aspect.

As always the safety of everyone who attends research at Aspect is our primary concern. In addition to following the advice from the government we’re also in constant contact with the MRS to ensure that we can continue to deliver our services to you, in accordance with best practice principles to safeguard the welfare of all involved.

This document is available for download via this link.

It’s undeniable that Viewing Facilities have been substantially affected by the Pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns and restrictions on Face to Face research.

In response to this, Aspect, along with many of our peers in the Viewing Facility sector of market research joined forces in order to achieve a number of goals.

Primarily we worked together to ensure that we were sharing best practice principles across the network so that you would know that there would be parity in the procedures of any members of the group.

Similarly as a collective we also understood that we had more weight in advocating for our particular sector of the industry. This has proven to be to be exceptionally useful as we’ve received excellent support from the MRS, AQR and the VFA.

We are now launching our first official campaign to remind people of the importance of Face to Face research and integral role that viewing facilities play in that dynamic. Far from being bricks and mortar locations which serve as central hubs for travelling researchers; viewing facilities are places where ideas are tested, debates are had and through the collective thoughts of a room full of strangers, new and exciting insights are discovered.

Technology has clearly played an important role over the last 12 months with online platforms enabling research to continue and, in fact, gain access to participants who may have been previously discounted for their distance from viewing facilities. Whatever the case, technology will continue to be an invaluable tool for all those involved in research; what the VFAG is now advocating for is that we once again ‘make room for face to face’.