I don't think brand identity is about getting people to care; it's about creating an association in their mind, so that when they need X, they'll think of Y, instead of conscientiously having to think about where to get it.
Google is a good example, since their brand identity is strongly linked with web search. When people want to find something out, opening google.com is often an immediate reaction; they don't wonder if they should use a different search engine, or even look it up somewhere else. It's immediate and unconscious.
In my experience people couldn't care less about "brand identity" in general.
Nobody (outside our tech filter-bubble) cares what Amazon does or doesn't do beyond their shopping and book business.