The Pirate Inside: Building a Challenger Brand Culture Within Yourself and Your Organization
By Adam Morgan. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, West Sussex, England. 2004. 336 pages. RRP $52.95 (hard cover). ISBN 0 470 86082 0.
With a captivating title, author Adam Morgan takes the reader into a new world with his book The Pirate Inside. In writing this book, Morgan has researched not just the legendary founders associated with iconic brands such as Diesel, but also the previously unheralded managers and executives who have been responsible for successful brand creation within larger, multi-brand corporations. This is a follow-up to Morgan’s previous book, Eating the Big Fish.
The Pirate Inside starts well and the first chapter prepares the reader for an exciting journey and then … it falls flat. The ‘pirate/s’ is used as an attention-seeking metaphor and it succeeds in grabbing the reader’s attention. However, it pans out to be just another commentary on how thinking different can breed success.
In the first part, Morgan argues that being a pirate is not being an anarchist; it has its own disciplines. Real-life pirates had a code of conduct called The Articles – a different set of rules from those of the Navy, but a binding one all the same.
In part two, Morgan sets out to show how to apply those behaviours in the most productive way to become a ‘marketing pirate’ and create step-change for any brand.
Part three explores ‘pirates within the Navy’ – brand-centred subcultures within larger organisations without a founder – and explores how these challenger micro-climates are best created and nurtured. Along the way, Morgan examines and dismantles the ‘Six excuses for the Navy’: the reasons we commonly give for not being the pirate our brand needs us to be, such as: “But I don’t have a founder”, “But I don’t have a large advertising budget” and “But my consumer doesn’t want anything new in the category”.
Parts four and five wrap up the narrative. The most intriguing and, in my opinion, the best part of the book is the chapter on wrapping – a different kind of communication. The idea is based on country brands that have their own belief system, culture, dialect and iconography. Despite what politicians would like to believe, these emerge spontaneously and have tremendous power. I believe the country metaphor works well because it is a much more refreshing take on brand development, one very different from that of an external supplier.
The main asset of The Pirate Inside is its thorough and often amusing strategic directions for creating a challenger culture. Although the examples that are provided to illuminate most of the points are interesting and engaging, they lose their lustre when repeated, in some cases three times.
Despite a very promising title, The Pirate Inside fell far short of my expectations. Hopefully, Adam Morgan will deliver something more interesting and valuable in Fugitive Indigo, the promised third instalment in this series.
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