Uncovering Critical Hermeneutics in the Construction of the Meaning of Corporate Identity in the Nigerian Banking Industry

Abstract

One of the important contributions of corporate marketing research lies within the relationship between corporate identity and corporate image. At the centre of this relationship is the social construction process through which corporate actors (at senior management level) express specific aspects of their corporate personalities with the intention of creating and maintaining a defined set of corporate relations. In this process, firms attempt to develop and convey various corporate personality messages that support the development of desired patterns of corporate relationships. This paper seeks to illustrate the use of a critical hermeneutically grounded approach in analyzing these attempts. Thus, this method is applied to the corporate advertising texts of the three largest banks in Nigeria, pre 2005. The deconstruction of these texts uncovers the industry construction of the meaning of corporate identity as a generic corporate personality. The emergence of this new concept broadens the ongoing discourse on the meaning of corporate identity and gives deeper insight into what corporate identity really means.

Keywords: corporate advertisement, corporate image, corporate identity, critical hermeneutics, Nigerian banking industry, social construction