A Cultural Analysis Of Financial Slogans. The Case Of Us Banks And Credit Unions

The aim of this paper is to conduct a cultural analysis of financial slogans based on the theoretical framework of Geert Hofstede. We chose to focus on the case of the United States of America and the sample includes slogans from two types of financial institutions offering similar services: banks and (federal) credit unions, further divided into “local” and “national” according to their reach, i.e. the number of US states where they have branches, thus making direct interaction with customers possible. The methodology relies on empirical research and content analysis. First, the choice of the sample is explained, as well as the way it is organized. The paper then proceeds to demonstrate the need to adapt the Hofstede model to the nature of the sample by focusing only on the appropriate cultural dimensions. The actual analysis begins with a brief cultural overview of the U.S.A., as this is the background against which the approach of US bank and (federal) credit union slogans should be set. The findings are first presented in column charts and the cultural aspects are quantified based on their number of occurrences in the sampled slogans. We then proceed to identify and map the underlying values that slogans convey according to the cultural aspect illustrated. Several things emerge at this point: from a general perspective – although the sample is limited in this respect – the cultural values represented by the slogans of national financial institutions fit the national pattern (high individualism, masculinity). Local banks and credit unions, however, generally value the opposite cultural aspects i.e., primarily, collectivism and femininity, as their physical presence is limited, most of the time, to a single US state, which in turn creates the need to appeal to a smaller target audience regarded as a community. Some interesting findings also emerge at this point, such as unconventional slogans and the concept of “unbanking” preferred by credit unions. The whole approach leads to the conclusion that the size, type and reach of the financial institutions have a direct impact on the cultural values portrayed, and implicitly on the rhetoric and cultural encoding of their slogans.