The new ad campaign unveiled this week by Bank of America faces an uphill battle to restore the bank’s battered reputation. Advertising alone can’t do the job, really. For the message to stick, it will take a coordinated effort across many communication channels (see a related post here). More important, a lasting improvement in the bank’s standing will only come if there is demonstrable progress on fixing the business issues that are at the root of BofA’s image problem – debit-card fees, home foreclosures, small-business lending and executive compensation, to name several. Until those issues are resolved, advertising and other marketing techniques won’t accomplish much.
