Pirates, who challenge dominant brands, have a code. But it does not include the virtues of respecting the parent company, people's space, or the ways things have always been. Morgan draws upon 50 interviews with pirates from brand challenging companies including Diesel, Tommy Bahama, and Southwest airlines. His pirates dazzle with daring do: Apple's Steve Jobs, who shows what Morgan calls "emotional insertion" when he says, "Today we put the romance into computers" or Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of IKEA, who, in a Chinese chicken market, models "insights of opportunity" as he wonders how he can use the extra feathers.
For those of us without sea legs, Morgan offers four crisp sets of behavior to become a brand pirate and five personality traits to foster a challenger culture. Morgan is a wonderfully engaging writer, but sometimes his nautical analogies can get diluted by other metaphors. His ideas for helping challenger brands take on the big fish bristle with energy, originality--and above all--practicality. --Barbara Mackoff