Analysis of the target audience which is experienced about COVID-19 vaccines within social marketing

The purpose of social marketing is to examine human behaviors that can be considered negative for society and try to turn them into positive behaviors. This study aims to determine the target audience who hesitated during the COVID-19 pandemic period of COVID-19 vaccines, which is a social product, and at the same time, by learning the reasons for the hesitation experienced by this target audience, to determine the obstacles, motivation elements and expected benefits of hesitation behavior towards COVID-19 vaccines as required by social marketing. The population of the study consists of people aged 18 years and over in Ankara, Izmir and Sakarya provinces of Turkey who had COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Data were collected from 39 participants using face-to-face interview technique. In the analysis of the data, descriptive analysis method, one of the qualitative data analysis methods, was used since the focus was on the statements of the participants. The data were also transferred to the Maxqda program, coded, analyzed and a general benefit, barrier and motivation code map covering all provinces was created and a general summary of the findings was made. The findings obtained in this study showed that people with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy differed according to demographic characteristics. The results of the research show that social products should provide long-term benefits, social products are more important than commercial products in developing production processes, and social products are influenced by motivational factors as in commercial products. It is recommended that authorized persons should ensure the trust of consumers by making COVID-19 vaccine development processes over a long period of time.