A company's name, logo, typeface, colors, slogan, etc., are elements that help comprise its corporate identity. In marketing, a corporate identity (CI) is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitates the attainment of business objectives, and is usually visibly manifested by way of branding and the use of trademarks.

Corporate identity comes into being when there is a common ownership of an organizational philosophy which is manifest in a distinct corporate culture - the corporate personality.

Many companies, such as McDonald's and Electronic Arts have their own identity that runs through all of their products and merchandise. The trademark "M" logo and the yellow and red appear consistently throughout the McDonald's packaging and advertisements. Many companies pay large amounts of money for an identity that is extremely distinguishable, so it can appeal more to its targeted audience.

Corporate Identity is often viewed as being composed of three parts:

Corporate Design (logos, uniforms, etc.)

A corporate design is the official graphical design of the logo and name of a company or institution used on letterheads, envelopes, forms, folders, brochures, etc. The house style is created in such a way that all the elements are arranged in a distinguished design and pattern.

Corporate Communication (commercials, public relations, information, etc.)

Corporate communications is the process of facilitating information and knowledge exchanges with internal groups and individuals that have a direct relationship with an enterprise. It is concerned with internal communications management from the standpoint of sharing knowledge and decisions from the enterprise with employees, suppliers, investors and partners.

Corporate Behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)

Corporate Behavior is the behavior of a corporation or corporations (or company or companies). The corporate behavior of for-profit (capitalist) corporations and not-for-profit (non-capitalist) corporations differ due to the fundamental drive for profit in for-profit corporations, compared to the non-monetary goals often held by not-for-profit corporations.

A new definition of corporate identity has been proposed based on the general organization theory. This definition regards identity as a result of social interaction:

Corporate identity is the way corporate actors (actors who perceive themselves as acting on behalf of the company) make sense of their company in ongoing social interaction with other actors in a specific context. It includes shared perceptions of reality, ways-to-do-things, etc., and interlocked behavior.
In this process the corporate actors are of equal importance as those others; corporate identity pertains to the company (the group of corporate actors) as well as to the relevant others;
Corporate actors construct different identities in different contexts.