World view Ukraine Multiple realities Russias invasion last year rocked Ukraine and the world, but as people have adjusted to new realities in the country, research has also continued in the background. Oksana Pleskova reports I am Ukrainian, and I am eternally grateful to our army and all those who have made it possible for me to live at home, in my beloved city of Kyiv. Each stage of the war brings new challenges to our lives and businesses. Ive been conducting local and international qualitative market research for 27 years and I run my own small agency in Ukraine. At the beginning of the war, marketing was far from being a priority. But as soon as businesses resumed work, they began to ask questions that only customers could answer, and our industry slowly began to revive. Given the air raids and missile attacks, our first challenge was to ensure the safety of respondents. We mainly conducted online, in-depth interviews, arranged to be flexible in case we needed to pause or reschedule the interview so a respondent could go to a bomb shelter. The winter power outages were another challenge; we started doing more research offline, either at the office or in a cafe. It was a valuable experience that reinforced my belief that no technology can replace live conversations with people. Fortunately, there are no longer any power outages in Kyiv, and air-raid sirens are becoming less frequent. But even while the situation in Kyiv and much of Ukraine has improved a little, the war continues, with heavy fighting on the front lines and shelling along the Russian border. Our challenges are now about reaching a more complex level of interaction between humanity, ethics and business. Challenge one: Cope with the coexistence of multiple realities When I was in Amsterdam recently, to speak at a conference, I received a call from a client in Germany, who said: We have a request for a pack study in Ukraine. We were about to refuse the project, explaining to the client that people in Ukraine during the war were not up to discussing flowers on packaging. But I decided to call you first and ask what you think. Foreign clients often assume that conducting market research in a warring country is unethical. I am continuously trying to persuade them of the opposite. During the war we realised how 10 Impact ISSUE 42 2023_pp10-11 WV Ukraine.indd 10 16/06/2023 16:54