• Baojia Zheng, Jiao Yan, Xiaoqing Wang, Yuxin Tang, and Yali Xiang.
• From the Department of Health Management Center, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China.
• Saudi Med J. 2023 Jun 1; 44 (6): 560596560-596.

ObjectivesTo explore the role of the '4Ps' social marketing strategy on vaccine hesitancy and its impact on public vaccine coverage. The '4Ps' strategy (place, price, product and promotion) is a social marketing tool that had addressed many public issues and vaccinations.MethodsThis study was a retrospective before-after study. A total of 10795 people were enrolled. The routine COVID-19 immunization method was used for the first vaccination doses from 23 March to 11 April, 2021. Then we carried out a '4Ps' social marketing strategy for vaccination from 12 April to 1 May 2021. The vaccine hesitancy and the coverage rate of the first dosage of COVID-19 vaccine in the target population were collected and compared before and after the '4Ps' social marketing strategy.ResultsThe coverage reached only 6.19% during routine immunization. However, vaccine hesitancy of the target population decreased (52% versus [vs.] 3.1%, before vs. after '4Ps' strategy) and degree of coverage (94.8%, vs. routine vaccination method, p<0.001) significantly increased after taking '4Ps' social marketing strategy. Furthermore, the '4Ps' social marketing strategy also consolidated the completion of the second dosage of COVID-19 vaccines.ConclusionThe '4Ps' social marketing strategy greatly reduced vaccine hesitancy and enhanced vaccination coverage and provided a more effective and reliable promotion method in the face of current virus mutations and new vaccination in the future.Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal.

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