An Exploration of the Cultural Intersect in Communication Media of BNP Paribas in Bahrain
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An exploration of the cultural intersect in communication media of BNP Paribas in Bahrain Olivia Tripon A thesis submitted to AUT University In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Communication Studies (MCS) 2011 School of Communications Studies, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies Primary Supervisor: Dr. Petra Theunissen Secondary supervisor: Khairia Rahman 1 Attestation of Authorship ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning’. Signed: Olivia Tripon 2 Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere appreciation to those who provided me with help and inspiration to conduct this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Petra Theunissen for her patience, help, support and critical comments that help me to improve my work. Her support gives me the strength to challenge myself. I should also thank Khairia Rahman, my second supervisor, for her helpful comments. I would like to also thank Catriona Carruthers for the proof reading of the thesis. Many special thanks for the BNP Paribas’ employees, and professionals for helping me to conduct this study, for their help and precious knowledge. They gave me a plenty of their time shared with me valuable information and experiences and facilitated the access for me to their activities and archives. I am grateful too to all the professionals who were willing to participate to my research and interviews. Very special thank for my family and friends in Bahrain, Paris, and New Zealand, who encouraged me throughout the difficult stages of the research. I dedicate this thesis to my parents. To my father who has always been a great source of inspiration and to my mother for her encouragements. 3 Abstract The concept of cross culture and cultural identity of multinationals operating in various countries have been challenged by the notion of globalisation in the course of these last centuries. Thus, the question of cultural specificities has been put in jeopardy and has challenged organisations ‘desire to create an original cultural identity in order to differentiate them in this competitive market. This study explores the cultural interactions within the corporate identity of a French bank: BNP Paribas in Bahrain. The research tends to identify the cultural impacts of the French/European and the Bahraini Middle Eastern culture on the bank’s visual communication media. Because the bank is operating in a region rules by Islam, the purpose of the thesis is to understand to which extent BNP Paribas adheres to the cultural specificities of Bahrain and the Middle East in correlation with the corporate own national identity (French/ European). A mixed method approach of a case study including semiotics and iconography visuals analysis of the bank’s communication media and semi‐structured interviews of communication professionals has been followed. The findings revealed that BNP Paribas did adapt its communication to the local Arabic Middle Eastern culture keeping therefore their own cultural code mainly derived from the French European cultural identity. Further, the bank did avoid religious symbols with the concern of portraying an alliance and unity between both countries which have created a global culture expressed through cultural patterns and stereotypes. The bank’ main communication strategy in term of culture is to be ‘glocal’. They tend to represent the local culture within a global idea of culture. As a result, the bank avoided deeper cultural symbolism such as the religious ones to only focus on portraying a cultural identity representing harmony, social unity and alliance between both European and Middle Eastern countries. In creating a glocal approach through a bricolage of culture mixing French and Arabic cultural themes, BNP Paribas puts in 4 scene cultural similarities between both countries and takes the risk to promote a global culture where cultural specificities that actively participate to the construction of identity are wiped out. 5 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................1 1.1 General overview of the proposed research.................................................................1 1.2 Research questions.......................................................................................................3 1.3 Purpose and significance of the study..........................................................................4 1.4 Scope of the study........................................................................................................5 1.5 Structure of the thesis...................................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Literature Review.........................................................................................8 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................8 2.2 Culture definitions........................................................................................................8 2.3 Cultural dimensions in relation to this research.........................................................11 2.4 National identity in crisis? .........................................................................................14 2.5 Corporate identity and culture.....................................................................................24 2.6 Impacts of culture and Islam on corporate identity.....................................................35 2.7 The Arabic cultural......................................................................................................39 2.8 Summary......................................................................................................................58 Chapter 3: Methodology .................................................................................................59 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................59 3.2 Method design..............................................................................................................59 3.3 Data collection..............................................................................................................62 3.4 Summary.......................................................................................................................68 Chapter 4: Data Analysis.................................................................................................70 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................70 4.2 The logo........................................................................................................................72 4.3 Advertisements and other visual analysis.....................................................................91 4.4 Summary.....................................................................................................................140 Chapter 5: Discussion.......................................................................................................141 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................141 5.2 An ambivalent identity..................................................................................................141 5.3 The French culture embedded within the local culture.................................................145 5.4 BNP Paribas and the ‘glocal strategy’: the case of ‘Keep Reaching’...........................151 5.5 Summary.......................................................................................................................155 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................157 6.1 Suggestion and Contribution.......................................................................................157 6.2 Limitations...................................................................................................................159 6 List of Figures Chapter 4: Data Analysis Figure 4.1 BNP Paribas’ logo Figure 4.2 BNP Paribas Najmah logo Figure 4.3 BNP Paribas strip logo Figure 4.4 BNP Paribas Middle East Logo Figure 4.5 Le ‘Petit Prince’ advertisement Figure 4.6 Wealth Management campaign Figure 4.7 Keep Reaching Airport Figure 4.8 Keep Reaching Capital Club Figure 4.9 Ramadan card Figure 4.10 Eid card Figure 4.11 CSR calendar Figure 4.12 Najmah brochure Figure 4.13 Shot 3 Istanbul Figure 4.14 Shot 14 Asian man Figure 4.15 Shot 25 African and western men Figure 4.16 Shot 27 the two children Figure 4.17 Shot 35 groups of people with ropes Figure 4.18 Shot 42 the three women 7 Chapter one: Introduction This first chapter introduces important ground theories that place the purpose of the research into context. The purpose of the thesis is to identify and analyse all aspects of cross culture especially within the relationship between French and Bahraini culture within the BNP Paribas visual corporate