Over the years, I worked with many organizations starting back with student political organizations and the school paper at Stony Brook. This includes actual businesses, civic and religious organizations. Many of these businesses and organizations thought that advertising was the be all and end all in getting new business for these companies and members for these organizations. I even designed and wrote copy for these ads.

The problem with advertising is that it’s not a be all and end all to help a business that’s struggling or an organization that wants members. Advertising can never fix what troubles many businesses and organizations and that’s culture.

If you’re a business with a culture of poor customer service, advertising won’t fix that. If you’re a civic organization and you run it like an excusive clique while not interacting with new members, advertising won’t fix it.

As a retirement plan provider, you need to identify the issues as to why business isn’t growing because advertising may help, but it wont fix the problems that might ail your organization.