
Every business needs a founding myth – here’s ours:
“From the moment we met in 1994, we wanted to work together, and have done so ever since. We value and harness the exchange in our couple relationship to bring lönneker & imdahl rheingold salon forward in an unconventional, modern, fruitful way. Living, having a family, and working – full time – together is not only possible, it’s a model for the future.”


Jens Lönneker, rheingold founder, wanted to prove that making money with psychological morphology is indeed possible in 1986 – a bold move. The company had only one single telephone, via which a befriended lawyer’s secretary answered the phone with the company´s name. The very first research material was returned because of “lawyer’s secretary”. Nevertheless psychological market research was very convincing. Conitnual developing psychological and morphological concepts takes space and creativity; where better could creativity flow than in the rheingold salon directly at the cologne cathedral?
Ines Imdahl pursues her question of life as owner and founder of rheingold salon. The question Why. Philosophy could not really explain why people start and continue to smoke though knowing medical and physical consequences. This was her motivation to study psychology. Today, her clients want her to explain human behavior and experience to work on and develope joint strategies for markets, brands and communication with rheingold salon. To get to the bottom of human behavior, her TV format “5 Fallen 2 Experten” appears regularly on tha German channel WDR. Besides gender and culture research, she also successfully focusses on advertising effectiveness research: approx. 100 columns in a German trade paper and her book “Werbung auf der Couch” testify to that.
who we are
Founding year
1986 | since 2011 rheingold salon
Positioning
Qualitative, depth-psychological, morphological market research and strategy consulting, based on the scientific theory of Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Salber, Cologne University.
Location
In the heart of Cologne – directly at the cathedral.
Cologne is particularly suitable as a research location because it is situated in one of the most populous and densely populated regions in the world, the Rhine-Ruhr region, with more than 20 million inhabitants.
Experience
More than 25 years of experience in all industries for national and international clients. (At least we can’t think of any industry in which we haven’t done research).
What we do
We make sense. And we make sense for our customers. Cultural contexts influence brand and advertising perception. We constantly monitor these contexts. Conversely, we decipher the unconscious motives that control people’s behavior and experience. Always. Our goal is to decipher complex human structures and enable companies, brands, and markets to leverage them. In depth-psychological research as well as in strategic process support.
What we are
We are many things in one: one of the most ambitious German research agencies, a think tank, and a meeting place. In its continuous endeavor to understand the meaning of human experience and behavior, Ines Imdahl and Jens Lönneker’s rheingold salon draws on a successful avant-garde idea. Exciting, clever minds and thoughts have always needed and loved spaces for exchange, analysis, and immersion. Whether in Paris, Weimar, or today at rheingold salon in Cologne: salons create an atmosphere for productive, innovative further developments – to the benefit of market and media research. This includes numerous inspiring encounters: countless interviews, analysis sessions, events, seminars, television recordings, and, very importantly, eating and drinking together with others. Meaning needs depth, skill, exchange, and a salon.
The concepts developed at rheingold salon are used in myriad ways: in cultural and baseline research, in the development of narratives, in depth-psychological impact analyses around media, products, brands, and advertising, and even in our own podcasts.
The concepts include morphological psychology, the Message Tuner, Verfassungs Marketing, and Narrative Psychology.
why us
our USPs
Academy
And we train our junior staff ourselves.
Morphological market research is an exciting endeavor. Everything in our daily lives has its own psychological trade secret. And that’s what we try to find out. With a system and a method.
The rheingold akademie is the further education institution in the field of depth-psychological impact research. Under the auspices of the rheingold group, the academy offers practice-oriented training in brand and media psychology.
The basis of the training at the rheingold akademie is psychological morphology, a theory developed at Cologne University’s Psychological Institute of by Prof. Wilhelm Salber.
Information & applications at: hello@rheingold-salon.de
Jobs
One person alone can’t make much of a difference. That’s why we love creative and analytical exchange in a team.
If you are sure we should get to know each other, feel free to send us an application.
…a steady job: klumpp@rheingold-salon.de
…an internship: diefenbach@rheingold-salon.de