The article and responses miss a big event that affected customers like me. B of A lost a huge amount of my allegiance over the “American Flag Issue” at their Georgia branch last year. Admittedly, it was one stupid move by one local manager, but I still hold that against the bank’s management, especially their training and HR department. (Yes, it’s really the fault of the manager’s parents for not instilling some common sense in their child, but HR never should have hired such a person.)

When you spend more than Budweiser in advertising you can be almost anything you want. Though they lowered promotions and advertising expense in 2009 by roughly 18% from 2008 (2008 was the most they had spent on promotions and advertising) they still spent nearly $2 Billion in advertising. I agree that BofA’s brand is not in the toilet, but it is certainly nothing to be lauded either. You could easily exchange “strategic” with opportunistic. and “proactive” with “the ability to outspend any competitor.”

The fact of the matter is that at its core, BofA has no real brand. “Bank of Opportunity” is meaningless and NO reason for a consumer to switch financial institutions. Their brand is centered on BofA, not on those they wish to influence. For a brand to be meaningful it must be an extension of the prospect’s beliefs and attitudes. Imagine what you could do with that kind of budget and a message that actually meant something.

The comment above concerning Forrester’s research only proves the point. With only 33% of your own customers calling you a customer advocate (and you are spending $2 Billion telling people you are) you have serious problems. This means that two-thirds of your own customers do not believe you are a customer advocate. Isn’t looking out for your customers supposed to be part of the definition of a bank?

People look at BofA as what is wrong with the financial services industry (right, wrong, or indifferent). When you post crazy profits after being bailed out it only feeds that scorn. It is not just BofA, it is the whole industry. There is/was incredible opportunity for a financial services company to become the thought leader of the category. But rather than rising up and taking the lead, they all have remained in line slaves to the status quo.

In Q4 2007, 30% of BofA’s customers rated BofA a customer advocate. That percentage rose to 32% in Q4 2008, and was up another percentage point by Q4 2009.

A bank whose brand is “in the toilet” would not be experiencing an increase in this score.