Education
Published: June 21, 2023 | Updated: 21st June 2023
“I’m like Marmite, you either love me or you hate me, but I’m really good at what I do.”
Joanne Timney, the brain behind Basingstoke-based neuromarketing agency Bark Like A Big Dog, doesn’t mince words.
Neuromarketing is a research method which takes the findings of neuroscience and applies them to marketing.
“It’s a fairly simple concept,” Joanne explained. “About 95 per cent of our decision-making is sub-conscious.
“The part of the brain that does that is the emotional cortex, which is the oldest and fastest part of the brain.
“But it can’t read. Instead, it processes relationships; our brains are basically relationship and association engines.
“Our approach is to constantly reinforce a message the sub-conscious mind can understand, and it’s always looking for the simplest route to understanding. It interprets simple as true.”
These principles have taken her to the top of her profession, working for some of the biggest multinationals, becoming a fellow of the institute of marketing, teaching at universities on both sides of the Atlantic and authoring a number of books.
It was while working for some of the biggest companies in the world that Joanne realised it was time for a change.
“Working for the big multinationals, you just spend your life on a plane,” she explained.
“I was travelling one day, not long after I had reconnected with Gary – who is now my husband – and I suddenly realised ‘I actually quite like being at home now and I don’t want to be on a plane’”.
Following this epiphany she moved back to Basingstoke, where she grew up, and now focuses on SMEs – mainly those based in the south of England.
“A big part of the joy of it for me is being able to use my knowledge and experience to do things these smaller businesses could usually only dream of.
“If you earn a couple of billion for a massive company it’s barely noticed, but if you earn a few hundred thousand for an SME it’s transformational.”
More than just being a strong reason to return to Basingstoke (which Joanne described as the “beating heart of Hampshire”) Gary also inspired the pair to launch a new training platform, Acuity, drawing on the methods Joanne uses in her teaching.
“He’s been on the receiving end of a lot of training in his life, and it’s often been pretty crap,” she explained.
“I’ve always applied neuroscience to the way I teach, and now I’m taking those principles into Acuity.
“We’re using a microlearning structure, which is a brain-friendly way of rapidly and permanently retaining knowledge by breaking topics down into 15-minute nuggets.
“These will conveyed in simple, plain English. Rather than just being ‘look how many long and fancy words I know’, it will be complex learning distilled into language and media in a way which makes it stick.”
The first course to launch on the platform will be on Neuromarketing and will be developed by Joanne, then all future courses will see experts in their field providing the information for Acuity to develop into a course.
“More than anything we want to invest in training which isn’t just going to help you with a skill but will elevate your experience, whether that be at home, at work or interacting with people.
“It will be much more than just ticking a box and giving you a certificate, although we are hoping the courses will be accredited and able to count towards credits for university courses, we want it to change you.
“We’re talking to all kind of experts in different fields, and we’re looking for unique and proven academic skill development which will change people’s lives for the better. It’s going to be so much more than just online training.”
