It’s more than A to Z
Alphabet. There’s some playfulness in the cheekily named URL, and a subtle nod to the ambition from Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. “We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing,” said Page.” But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”
The most interesting thing though isn’t that they’re sticking to the cutting edge, or that they’re still being quirky and dynamic — it’s that they are signaling a step change in the perception of how holding companies can still be relevant as a brand in their own right.
A common association is that holding companies are legally re-structured ways of large conglomerates reducing risk whilst retaining power for individual organisations, championed in recent times by global financial and marketing super-powers who were looking for stability amidst the financial crisis (and potentially some tax loops, depending on location). Indeed, Google have already been criticised of this and even had it suggested that they may have made a blunder.
But here’s to betting the company that likes that bit of discomfort will triumph through adversity. I think it’s safe to assume Alphabet will be flipping the holding company pre-conception on its head — and dare I say it, making the mis-understood, understood.
In fact, they have already begun — holding companies, in consumer eyes, tend to be non-existent unless you go digging. It’s said that the Alphabet structuring is modeled on Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet’s conglomerate. But just look at their ‘official’ homepage, in comparison to www.abc.xyz, and you’ll see that already Alphabet are positioning themselves as more of a customer centric, media friendly, wholly visible holding company — with a remit for clarity to investors and autonomy for the plethora of companies currently eschewing out of Google like mutated spin-offs. And from what we’ve seen with others (e.g. Microsoft and Apple), too much focus on one core business can lead to trouble.
So the debate about whether it’s a clever move in a business sense is for the analysts — but from a branding and relevance perspective it’s absolutely a smart move, and immediately starts where Google has left off in terms of its genre-defying DIY attitude to communications and marketing.
I wonder how many holding company CEOs are currently thinking there’s something valuable they can learn here?
Mark Mobbs is Account Director at True North.
