Google Branding
Google, whose mission is to “take the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” surprised the world in 2015 with Alphabet. Google pulled off what could be called the biggest brand change in history with the introduction of Alphabet as its parent company.
Google basically created a consortium of brands and placed Alphabet in charge of all of all as the silent parent. The introduction of Alphabet introduced a change of slogan from “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing”.
Brief Background
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996. The company, most popular for its search engine which is self-named, has its fingers in a lot of pies on the technology table. From software to hardware, from productivity tools to design tools, Google is involved in them all. The company makes the majority of its revenue from advertising
The Sub Brand Culture
One important and strategic thing about the existence of Alphabet is that it allows all of the brands under it, to have their own unique brand identities, images and culture. Google retains its identity as well as the other subsidiaries. These subsidiaries include Calico, CapitalG, Jigsaw, Google Fiber, Waymo, X, GV, Nest Labs, Vevo, Sidewalk Labs, DeepMind and Verily.
The Google Logo
Google as a company is continually evolving and in 2015 a new brand identity was released. According to Google Design, “We started by distilling the essence of our brand down to its core—four colours on a clean white background—and built it back up.” The Google logo has always been a simple one and this was maintained in the creation of the new logo.
The new logo was created putting into focus three elements:
- The Google logotype: The logotype is a sans serif type which incorporated the multi-colour sequence Google is known for.
- Dots: This is the logotype distilled for interactive moments.
- The Google G which is just a compact alternative of the logo to be used in small and micro contexts.
One unique thing about the use of the Google logo is how it is changed daily via Google doodles. The homepage of Google sports a new doodle of their logo every day. This is traditionally a bad branding move, but it has in no way negatively affected their consumer perception or brand value. It has on the contrary, increased the engagement level of users as they are always eager to see the new and clever doodle Google comes up with- especially when it comes to special days.
Reception Of Alphabet And Google Logo Rebrand
The introduction of Alphabet and the rebrand of the Google logo should have spelt negative branding feedback for Google- especially with the fact that the Alphabet name is not unique to the company. This however, was not the case. The public for the most part, welcomed Alphabet and the new Google logo.
Google Brand Value
Google is the one of the biggest brands in the world, second only to Apple according to Forbes rankings, with a brand value of about 94.8 billion US dollars. In 2016, the brand value of the company rose by 26% while Apple’s rose by just 6%.
