BANK OF AMERICA CASE

Bank of America (abbreviated as BoA or BofA) is an American multinational (Links to an external site.) banking and financial services (Links to an external site.) corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina (Links to an external site.). It is the second-largest bank holding company (Links to an external site.) in the United States by assets. As of 2016, Bank of America is the 26th largest company in the United States by total revenue. In 2016, Forbes (Links to an external site.) listed Bank of America as the eleventh largest company in the world.

Bank of America provides its products and services through operating 5,100 banking centers, 16,300 ATMs, call centers, and online and mobile banking platforms. Its Consumer Real Estate Services segment offers consumer real estate products comprising fixed and adjustable-rate first-lien mortgage loans for home purchase and refinancing needs, home equity lines of credit, and home equity loans.

The bank’s 2008 acquisition of Merrill Lynch (Links to an external site.) made Bank of America the world’s largest wealth management (Links to an external site.) corporation and a major player in the investment banking (Links to an external site.) market. According to the Scorpio Partnership Global Private Banking Benchmark 2014, it had assets under management (AuM) of US$ (Links to an external site.)1,866.6 Bn, an increase of 12.5% on 2013.

The company held 12.2% of all bank deposits in the United States in August 2009, and is one of the Big Four banks in the United States (Links to an external site.), along with Citigroup (Links to an external site.), JPMorgan Chase (Links to an external site.) and Wells Fargo (Links to an external site.)—its main competitors. Bank of America operates—but does not necessarily maintain retail branches—in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia (Links to an external site.) and more than 40 other countries. It has a retail banking footprint that serves approximately 50 million consumer and small business relationships at 5,151 banking centers and 16,259 automated teller machines (Links to an external site.) (ATMs).

Bank of America has been the subject of several lawsuits and investigations regarding both mortgages and financial disclosures dating back to the financial crisis (Links to an external site.), including a record settlement of $16.65 billion on August 21, 2014.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America(Links to an external site.)

1. You have recently been promoted to be the director of advertising for the Bank of America, https://www.bankofamerica.com/ (Links to an external site.). In your first meeting with Mr. Moynihan, CEO, he says, “Advertising is a waste! We’ve been advertising for six months now and sales haven’t increased. Tell me why we should continue.” Give your answer to Mr. Moynihan.

2. The Bank of America has decided to switch from using a strong fear appeal to a humorous approach for the insurance division. What are the strengths and weaknesses of such a change in message strategy?

3. Some national advertisers have found that they can have more impact with their advertising by running a large number of ads for a period and then running no ads at all for a period. Why might such a flighting schedule be more effective than a continuous schedule for the Bank of America?

4. The Bank of America is interested in consumer-oriented sales promotions that would encourage senior citizens to direct deposit their Social Security checks with the bank. Evaluate the sales promotion options, and recommend two of them to the bank.