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GfK HealthCare | October 2011 | |
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KOL Mapping: Identifying Opinions That Count  By Marite Talbergs, Senior Vice President, and Tom Perkins, Project Manager Why conduct KOL mapping? In today’s reality it is hard to avoid the notion that social networks are all around us and have a real and impactful influence on our daily lives. In today’s digital world social networks not only include our daily one-on-one interactions but also our virtual interactions via the Internet. From online blogs to status updates, we are constantly inundated with the opinions of others. We click on the links they post about the latest celebrity gossip or sports deals. We look at their photos from their last weekend getaway. We even read news articles they post about current world events, often being exposed to new sources of information outside our daily routines. And while we may ignore the constant noise of some individuals, we are ultimately influenced by a key few whose thoughts and feelings we hold in high esteem. Research has proven that what is true for the vast majority of us on a personal level is also a very real phenomenon in the business of health care. Physicians turn to each other for advice on a daily basis and seek out the opinions of those whom they consider key opinion leaders (KOLs). In a world that is becoming ever smaller through the advancement of technology, identifying the clinical (practicing physicians and researchers) and nonclinical players (i.e., select administrators, regulators, even payors) who have influence over their peers may be more important now than in the past. With a single click of a mouse, information can be shared with literally thousands of people, and this information remains readily available for as long as anyone cares to seek it out. KOL mapping provides a way not only to identify who those key few influentials are within a given category, but also to identify how far their influence stretches. Where should it be done? Sociometric leaders are a worldwide occurrence; therefore the idea of KOL mapping is something that can prove beneficial to all markets. The first critical step is always to partner with research firm that can provide insights into the local market and explain any specific limitations in countries or regions. Interestingly, while the majority of research conducted in the past has focused on the purely clinical KOL, recent changes affecting the pharmaceutical industry and the way it conducts business have made it essential to also identify nonclinical KOLs. In today’s landscape we can no longer focus on the thoughts of the physicians alone, we must also consider the opinions of the payors, insurance companies, formulary review committees, hospital C-Suite and administrators in order to ensure success in a competitive market. To identify areas where KOLs are the most active, and therefore offer the greatest potential for driving influence, three criteria should be applied:
Traditional approaches to KOL influence mapping focus on the amount of information a specific person produces in relation to the topic of interest. These methodologies tend to look at the amount of or frequency with which potential KOLs publish articles in order to rank their influence. While this data is valuable to know, recent studies1, have begun to question the true amount of influence generated by this type of KOL. The findings of these studies clearly point in a new direction and express the importance of looking at KOLs in terms of their social networks and not by their body of work. The findings of these studies strongly suggest that the value of potential KOLs can be defined more clearly by determining the reach of their influence through the actual number of peers who would turn to them for advice rather than simply the footprint of their publication volume. In this way we are able to identify those physicians who are actually influencing their peers, rather than simply identifying those physicians who are attempting to influence others, whether anyone is truly listening to them or not. In order to assess the nature of these KOLs’ influence it is important to consider three to four unique types of influence:
The ways the information from a KOL mapping study can be implemented are endless. Identifying and understanding social networks will become more vital in the way business is done especially as society moves further into the global environment of online technology . By understanding these networks and interactions it is possible to identify what topics are being discussed and which products or approaches are creating the most buzz. Additionally, we have found that the top 1 percent to 5 percent of KOLs are those who are well known to the industry overall. These names typically provide a strong reason to believe in the validity of the data. The next 10 percent to 15 percent of KOLs identified from KOL mapping are often those “up-and-comers” who represent an untapped resource for future collaboration and marketing efforts. Once the key influentials are identified, aligning with these KOLs not only allows the health care industry to vet new ideas and disseminate new best-of-breed approaches to patient care, it also ultimately can lead to faster adoption of game-changing techniques and quickly expand awareness of treatment options to improve patient outcomes locally, nationally and globally. References: 1 including an article published in Marketing Science, Vol. 30, titled “Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion.” |
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