Google’s Alphabet: Where’s the brand vision?

This week, Google grew up.

Taking many in the business world by surprise, the tech giant restructured itself under a new holding company, Alphabet. The shake-up means many of the ‘moonshot’ projects Google picked up over the years have been spun off into separate and independent companies, while Google retains the most profitable side: search and advertising.

To many, Alphabet will make a lot of sense. Google had started to seem like a mega-conglomerate that was too powerful for its own good and this will help change that.

But there is a problem. Google is an exciting and innovative brand. The company has spawned belief statements learned by heart by brand strategists and copied by businesses across the world. Its motto, “Don’t be evil,” is probably one of the world’s most recognized. But the language around the Alphabet launch struck a different chord. Cofounder Larry Page’s statement about being “cleaner, more accountable and more management scale” makes Google sound more like a financial services firm than the innovative tech company we know and love.

Similarly, his statement about strong leadership is more corporate than necessary. He said, “Our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well.” This may be sensible stuff, but brand strategists certainly won’t want to memorize it.

Finally, Google’s vision, or the way it sees its position in the world, has always been core to its brand, but what is the vision for Alphabet, and what does the new company actually stand for? What we’ve heard so far has given little away other than that it “wants to make the world a better place,” which is cursory and vague. Who doesn’t want to make the world a better place?

The announcement was welcomed by Wall Street analysts and increased Google’s market cap by $20 billion overnight, but how will Google’s employees, some of the brightest, most creative people in the world, react to this new, corporate focus? After all, these are the same software engineers who are encouraged to design their own desks and express themselves by scribbling on walls. People work for Google because it’s exciting, but the messaging we’ve heard this week has been anything but.

Although the Alphabet announcement plays well to the markets, I’m concerned that the move indicates a shift from innovation and creativity to the bottom line.

So, while Alphabet is a great name and could be a brilliant way of bringing order to Google’s complexity, the language surrounding the announcement also hints at new limitations, the sort of convention that restricts less original companies.

Alphabet must still include the spirit of Google’s brand values within the new company and concede less to the financial markets if it is to succeed. I, for one, hope it does.

Peter Knapp is Global Creative Officer at brand consulting and design firm Landor.