Brand value must be earned
I want to end with a plea for a return to smart identity design. To try to achieve anything else is almost pointless, and will also involve the designer - and brand owners and consultants - making horrendous assumptions and arrogant assertions.
For me, all the brand identities that work are memorable, optically robust, and designed with a sense of style and proportion. These are technical qualities that can be evaluated and assessed, but I also look for how well a brand identity is suited to the entity it is serving - the subliminal qualities that Sean Perkins mentioned. Yet I suspect that in nearly all cases these are retrofitted.
We imbue the logos and physical appearance of a brand with the values that we want. In other words, business and institutions have to earn brand value - it simply cannot be imposed by a logo, a slogan or a promise. It has to be real.