When working in a marketing support role in one of the big banks a few years ago, I heard a senior-ish marketing guy grumble, “How much more research do we need to do before we understand that they all think we’re bastards?”

He wasn’t, I think, really concerned by the ‘bastard’ issue, rather he was irritated by the time and resources that would be wasted on pointless research – time and resources he’d prefer to spend on positioning his brand as slightly less dastardly than the other three or four.