The Pirate Inside

"It's more fun to be a Pirate than to join the Navy"

Steve Jobs

This is a book for Necessary Pirates. People who have to leave 'the Navy' - the way their category and perhaps even their company has historically done things - in order to succeed. In writing it, Adam Morgan has deliberately set out to research not just the legendary founders associated with iconic Challenger brands such as Diesel, but also the previously 'invisible' people that have been responsible for step-changing Challengers within larger, multi-brand corporations. By isolating common qualities and behaviour across the interviewees, he has harnessed for the first time insights into those aspects of ourselves we must encourage to achieve breakthrough as Challengers.

Drawing on these findings, The Pirate Inside 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. And in the same way, Morgan offers advice on what the new behaviours for Marketing Pirates are: where they look for opportunity, for example; how they think about small budgets and limited distribution; how they productively push back against their superiors. And how they manage That Difficult First Year - when they have committed to a new direction, but the results have yet to prove them right.

The first part of The Pirate Inside sets out these behaviours, and shows how to apply them in the most productive way to become a Marketing Pirate and create step-change for your brand. Part Two moves on to explore 'Pirates within the Navy' - brand-centred subcultures within larger organizations 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".

Every organization needs a little Constructive Piracy. Including yours. Welcome to The Pirate Inside, a new manifesto for how the marketeer and marketing-led company of the future will think and behave.