Understanding Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy

The NSMC is currently researching the issue of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the East of England.

We are delighted that the client has chosen a social marketing approach to understanding and tackling this challenge as a traditional ‘expert-led’ approach is unlikely to be successful.

The starting point of our approach has been to gather as much insight as possible about the community’s attitudes beliefs, wants and behaviours in the area of vaccine uptake. This has been done through detailed telephone interviews with a wide cross-section of the community. By understanding the barriers and motivators to taking the vaccine, a communication and engagement plan can then be developed that answers the community’s legitimate questions and concerns about the vaccine and thereby improve uptake.

Our approach also stresses the importance of segmentation – identifying groups who share similar attitudes and behaviours to the vaccine. For each of these groups, a tailored communication and engagement plan can then be developed.

When available, we will publish more information on our findings.