Loenneker & Imdahl rheingold salon

What Loenneker & Imdahl rheingold salon does

Lönneker & Imdahl rheingold salon GmbH & Co KG is a private, founder-owned qualitative market research and strategy consulting firm based in Cologne, Germany. Founded in 1986 by Jens Lönneker and co-led since 1994 with Ines Imdahl, the firm applies Morphological Psychology — a depth-psychological framework developed by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Salber at the University of Cologne — to decode unconscious consumer motives, cultural meanings, and brand perception structures. Its methodology stack is supplemented by proprietary branded approaches including Message Tuner, Constitutional Marketing, and Narrative Psychology.

The firm's service portfolio spans depth-psychological interviews, group discussions, brand and strategy consulting, employer branding and purpose research, PR studies and communication consulting, digital and quantitative research, workshops and coaching, and a speakers-and-events practice. A rheingold Akademie led by Dr. Wolfram Domke productizes the methodology into educational seminars. Service delivery is project-based and supervised personally by the two managing directors. The customer base is exclusively enterprise (Intersnack, Vorwerk, Vitakraft, Unilever/Knorr/Rama/Upfield, Versicherungskammer Bayern/Zurich Deutschland, Hubert Burda Media, IKW), with stated multi-year engagements such as the >10-year relationship with Zurich Deutschland.

The firm operates a single German headquarters located at Hohe Straße 160-168, 50667 Köln (directly at Cologne Cathedral), delivering international projects via a worldwide moderator network. Go-to-market is sales-led and driven by thought leadership — WDR television appearances, Handelsblatt columns by Ines Imdahl, podcasts, and a LinkedIn Learning course — rather than paid marketing. The company is structured as a German GmbH & Co KG with no external institutional investment or affiliation to larger agency networks.

Name

Loenneker & Imdahl rheingold salon

Legal name

Lönneker & Imdahl rheingold salon GmbH & Co KG

Website

https://rheingold-salon.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1986

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Lönneker & Imdahl rheingold salon is a Cologne-based, founder-owned qualitative market research and strategy consulting firm that applies Morphological Psychology to decode unconscious consumer motives, serving enterprise clients in FMCG, insurance, media, and other industries across Germany and EMEA.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Cologne

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Qualitative Market Research Projects: Project-based professional services engagements for qualitative depth psychological market research. Clients commission research across categories including brand studies, advertising effectiveness, product development, cultural studies, and consumer behavior analysis. Projects range from in-depth interviews to group discussions, workshops, and strategic process support.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Lönneker & Imdahl rheingold salon is a Cologne-based qualitative market research and strategy consulting firm that applies depth-psychological methodology (Morphological Psychology) to decode unconscious consumer motives, brand perception, and cultural meaning. It sells project-based B2B engagements covering depth-psychological interviews, group discussions, brand and strategy consulting, employer branding, PR/communication research, workshops, and speaking engagements to enterprise clients across all industries in Germany and internationally.

Product overview

Lönneker & Imdahl rheingold salon is a qualitative, depth-psychological market research and strategy consulting firm founded in 1986, based in Cologne, Germany. The firm operates as a single integrated service offering built on the Morphological Psychology framework developed by Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Salber at the University of Cologne. Rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture, the company offers a unified methodological approach applied across diverse service areas. These include Depth Psychology & Interviews, Group Discussions, Brand & Strategy Consulting, Employer Branding & Purpose, PR Studies & Communication Consulting, Speaker & Events, Workshops & Coaching, and Fundamental & Operative Research. The core intellectual property consists of proprietary methodologies including Morphological Psychology, Message Tuner, Constitutional Marketing, and Narrative Psychology. The firm also conducts specialized research studies (e.g., youth studies for IKW, podcast studies with Hubert Burda Media) and offers educational programs through the rheingold Akademie. Founded by Ines Imdahl and Jens Lönneker, the firm emphasizes in-depth psychological research as an alternative to cognitive, linguistic, and semiotic approaches in the qualitative research market.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Depth Psychology & Interviews In-depth depth-psychological interviews conducted by trained psychologists, exploring unconscious motivations and psychological dimensions of consumer behavior for enterprise clients.
• Group Discussions Qualitative group discussion facilitation using depth-psychological methodology for brand and market research, conducted for enterprise clients.
• Brand & Strategy Consulting Empirically psychology-based brand strategy and positioning consulting, including Brand Key, Brand Vision, Brand Manifestos, and Creative Briefs development for enterprise clients.
• Employer Branding & Purpose Analysis of employer image, strategic recommendations for positioning, and research on employee retention and purpose-driven branding for corporate clients.
• PR Studies & Communication Consulting Depth-psychological representative studies for public relations and communication strategy development, including narrative and story creation for media outreach.
• Speaker & Events Presentations on psychological topics by Jens Lönneker and Ines Imdahl for congresses and events, covering sustainability, diversity, purpose, depth psychology, and related subjects.
• Depth Psychology in Workshops & Coaching Application of depth-psychological principles in workshop and coaching formats for organizational development with corporate clients.
• Fundamental & Operative Research Research combining theoretical foundations with practical applications for brand and market analysis.
• Digital & Quantitative Research Integration of digital and quantitative research methods alongside depth-psychological qualitative approaches.
• rheingold Akademie (rheingold Academy) Educational programs and seminars led by Dr. Wolfram Domke, providing training in morphological psychology and depth-psychological methodologies for professionals and clients.

Quantifiable outcome

• Kesselchips for Intersnack: ~500% growth in first year after launch; market category dynamics of 60% still maintained years after 2012 introduction
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• GfK (NielsenIQ): Historic German-rooted market research major, now part of NielsenIQ; competes for large-scale German enterprise research and brand-tracking mandates but with a primarily quantitative and syndicated model.
• Ipsos: Global market research leader with strong qualitative and behavioral science practices; competes for the same enterprise qualitative briefs but at vastly larger scale and with broader portfolio offerings.
• Kantar: Global market research and consulting group; overlaps with rheingold salon on brand strategy and consumer insight work but operates across a much wider portfolio of research products.

Direct peers

• Sinus Markt- und Sozialforschung: Heidelberg-based market and social research firm known for its own proprietary typology methodologies (Sinus-Milieus) and deep cultural insights — directly comparable to rheingold salon's theory-driven approach.
• Result Group: German qualitative market research agency serving major brands; competes for the same brand-strategy and consumer-insight engagements in the German market.
• Eye Square: Berlin-based research firm specializing in implicit/explicit consumer behavior measurement and brand effectiveness — comparable as a methodology-driven qualitative research boutique serving enterprise brands.
• T-factors: German market research and strategy consultancy combining qualitative research with strategic consulting — closely aligned with rheingold salon's research-plus-strategy offering.
• InSites Consulting: Belgium-based consumer insights agency known for qualitative community-based research; comparable in methodology depth and enterprise brand-client focus across Europe.
• Psyma: German qualitative market research firm with a strong psychological-research heritage; competes head-to-head with rheingold salon for psychology-grounded consumer insight projects in the German market.
• Gesellschaft für Innovative Marktforschung (GIM): German qualitative research agency specializing in deep psychological and cultural consumer insights; competes for the same enterprise brand-strategy and innovation briefs in DACH.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/rheingold.salon
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rheingold-salon

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Loenneker & Imdahl rheingold salon