Visual vs. Visible identity

“This logo option symbolizes peace, prosperity and passion. The three green dots at the back symbolize harmony with different elements of environment. The design retains brands youthful exuberance and progressive attitude..”

“This colour and typeface symbolizes warmth and care. It has traditional roots and yet progressive in its orientation”

I am sure many of us have been part of or witnessed such discussions about brands and their visual identity. No doubt there is an entire stream of professionals who have their careers dedicated towards the ever-growing scope of brands & visual identity.
It is equally interesting to note that most of this art and science behind branding and visual identity is western in its origin.
This western emphasis on visual identity (stories behind mnemonics, colours etc) assumes

1.The audience/consumer is matured enough to understand these
2.There is high degree of involvement & interaction between the logo, brand colours packaging on one side and the user or shopper on the other
3.The purchase context is impersonal/self-help in other words a lot depends on what is written on the pack or the symbols and colours shown on the signage
4.Also, it assumes that the shopper is individualistic (the way western societies tend to be) and individualism manifests itself in the purchase habits viz. personal decisions and relatively limited resorting to referrals

Cut to the reality of Indian masses

1.Majority of consumers are not educated or informed
2.Role of branding is more to do with awareness and identification (be able to see it and identify it rather than cherish it or engage in the story of the colour)
3.Role of demonstration (dikhao), narration (sunao) and, music (bajao) is far greater than plain reliance on ‘signaging’
4.Personal interaction with the product (packaging, symbols, colours, signages etc) are important but subordinated by the extent of interaction with the retailer

The message here seems to be that in a market like India (esp. mass market) and at least in the foreseeable future notwithstanding the ongoing retail boom (see for yourself how even large format self-help stores have much more human interaction through the support staff, than what west would ever imagine) most of the mass brand logos would need visual identities that help the consumer in identifying the brand and not as much in making the customer feel in a certain way.
Also, design briefs for logos that are usually based on a western philosophy of ‘telling a story in your symbol’ might not be the driving mandate for logo or brand mnemonic designs for Indian market. Majority of shoppers in India are at a more basic level of ‘identifying’ the brand or name with the color or symbol or the shape.
This does not mean that one market is highbrow while the other is not; it just means that both markets are at different stages of development.
Thus brand mnemonics; logos; colours etc (and at least for mass brands) need to be more information oriented than story or perception oriented

In India we have enough retailers and one to one interactions that are warm, caring & human, let us not make brand colours, mnemonics, typeface etc. duplicate the effort. They can better deploy their energies by standing out and being visible than being visually rich with layers to their meaning.
New Indian mass thus need not sweat too much on the colour of the there dots at the back of the branding unit.. nobody is seeing or understanding it anyway.