Where Methodology Beats Taste
Interview with Marion Endres, Managing Director of IDEENHAUS GmbH
Marion Endres sometimes likes to provocatively tell her clients that she is not at all interested in their taste – because taste is a poor advisor in matters of brand management or design anyway. With her Ideenhaus, the marketing expert relies much more on a methodically mature approach, which is why her company does not need to fear the AI revolution.
As the owner of the brand agency IDEENHAUS, Marion Endres looks relatively calm at the fundamental transformation of the entire brand and advertising industry that artificial intelligence will inevitably trigger: 'AI did not hit us like a tsunami—it was rather another evolutionary step for us, which started years ago.'
'By now I provocatively say to my clients: 'I am not interested in your taste – and mine should not interest you either,' explains the marketing expert: 'I grew up in a marketing world where large campaigns were often run without sense or purpose, where one ran from pitch to pitch hoping somehow to meet the taste of the decision makers or their cousins. It drove me crazy – and that's why we wanted to methodically derive what we should implement when and why with IDEENHAUS, based on insights from color psychology or semiotics.'
The Somewhat Different Agency
In a world of branding, advertising, and content that increasingly consists of AI-generated materials, it becomes easier for them, rather than more difficult, to stand out with great ideas, designs, and concepts from the masses: 'I have the impression that the images and texts we encounter are becoming more and more similar - this affects not only product designs, but also fashion or Netflix. Given this increasing uniformity, however, there develops a tremendous need for individuality and authenticity - the real and unadulterated will experience even stronger demand,' explains Marion Endres. She does not see a contradiction to her method-driven approach - on the contrary: 'Once you have developed a resilient system, you can work highly creatively on its basis and develop and present your own identity.'
But not only with this belief does the Ideenhaus remain refreshingly different: 'I love marketing – but, frankly, I'm not particularly fond of our industry: In my first jobs in this then still very male-dominated world, one had to work endless overtime, had little to no say, and then often had to deal with personalities consumed by vanity. With Ideenhaus, I wanted to do things differently: We don't work through the weekends, everyone must take sufficient vacation and should be able to reconcile their job with their family life well. With this, we have been clearly rejecting the exploitative and self-destructive nature of the marketing world for 36 years.'