MORE IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE.

LESS IS A CHOICE.

New projects. New products. New channels, tools, names.

There’s always a good reason to add something. Almost never a good reason not to. Especially when it comes to brands.

A tagline stays. A sub-brand gets added. An exception becomes a rule. And eventually, the system needs a second system just to manage the first.

In the end, everything has been explained, aligned and approved. Only nobody can remember what it was all for.

And AI can build the presentation in fifteen minutes.

What stays? What can go? And why is the second question so much harder?

BRAND DETOX is a rehab clinic for brands, in pocket-sized form. There are entire bookshelves devoted to building brands. This book picks up years later, when brand strategy has long since turned into brand administration.

Six chapters: Symptoms, Diagnosis, Withdrawal, Therapy, Recovery, Everyday Life.

Plus real-world case studies, from Mini to Rolex. Everyone knows the brands. Few know the decisions behind them.

256 pages on the art of leaving things out.

Brands get exactly one chance to make a first impression. BRAND DETOX gets eight. A bibliophile’s excess: the dust jacket unfolds into a poster featuring eight covers — psychological thriller, epic fantasy, erotic novel, decluttering guide … You decide which one faces out. The other seven stay out of sight.

For everyone responsible for brands. In the boardroom, in marketing, communications or design. And for those who have to deal with the consequences of decisions someone else made long ago.

BRAND DETOX was written by Ruth Lintemeier and Klaus Lintemeier, co-founders of the brand consultancy Brand RE, and Ralf Herms, Chief Surprise Officer at Rosebud, art book publisher and amateur gastronome. Between them, they’ve witnessed far too many good reasons to leave this book unwritten.