Six Things Pirates Can Teach Us About Marketing

Pirates can teach us about marketing. We're not talking pirates in the metaphorical sense. We're talking pirate pirates. Real ones. The ones who talk in arrrrs.

We're a bunch of sailors based in the Caribbean (the home of the most notorious pirates of old, including our favourite, Blackbeard) so we pay attention to pirate stories.

Yes they were badasses. Yes they broke the law. And yes there are things they did that fall outside our code.

But we believe there are some lessons in there among the peg legs and hooks. We hope these tips provide food for thought.

1. The best pirates collaborate

The best pirates worked with other pirates. They didn’t work alone.

Blackbeard had New Providence as his home base. It was uninhabited but for pirates. This was a place where pirates could fix their ships and exchange their stories.

Woven within their stories were advice on the latest pirating techniques and information on movements of naval vessels: items of great importance to pirates.

How is that relevant to a marketer in 2017? Find yourself somewhere where you can mingle with other marketeers.

Look at Philips, that inveterate collaborator. In recent years they have collaborated with Nivea, Swarovski, InBev (that's Stella Artois et al), BASF, coffee company Marcilla among others.

Concepts like Soho House and WeWork are not just convenient places to work. They are great places to mingle with your contemporaries.

As is LinkedIn. Search out people in your area of expertise. Catch up for a coffee. Swap ideas. Collaborate, pirate.

2. Perception creates reality

If you’re in marketing you may have reached the conclusion that perception is more important than reality. But really it’s like saying rugby forwards are more important than backs.

As with forwards and backs in rugby, perception (the promise) and reality (the product/service) are both important. One must set things up for the other.

Blackbeard knew this. He established a very clear brand as a badass.

He was described by one contemporary as: "such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell to look more frightful."

Not exactly someone you'd take home to mother.

Yet despite his ferocious reputation, there are no accounts of his ever having harmed those he held captive.

In a sense he created a form of cognitive bias, or a halo effect, through his badass branding. People responded based on their perception of him, not actually on who he was.

Smart companies reliant on ratings sites such as tripadvisor work this cognitive bias very effectively. If 350 people before you have given five star ratings to a travel provider, how favourably are you going to look at this travel provider? Through which lens will you regard this company? Will you give benefit of doubt when there is a small error?

Yes you will. Thanks to the same cognitive bias that Blackbeard milked so effectively. Work assiduously on review sites. As these can - at the very least - influence your service's reality. And of course always, always ensure they are genuine. If you don't, the truth will find you, pirate.

3. If you ever come across Hornigold, work with him

Blackbeard actually worked under a pirate named Hornigold for a while. Not even kidding.

Hornigold, a former privateer (and later pirate hunter) taught him his craft, then retired.

The message here is that Blackbeard had a mentor.

If you don't have one, find yourself your own Hornigold.

A good mentor is worth her weight in Grenadian nutmeg (which used to be more expensive than gold fyi. You’re welcome.).

4. Even pirates maintain good ties with government

Many pirates of the day received King's Pardons. Such pardons allowed them to back out of their craft without consequence.

These were the days when the difference between a privateer and a pirate was one more of elocution than election.

Maintaining ties with government, while simultaneously practicing the seemingly paradoxical art of piracy, was the delicate balance that saved many a pirate when he wished to retire.

What’s the takeaway? Stay in with the authorities, proving your worth while simultaneously bending the very rules they uphold.

5. Ambush wherever you can

Sailing Virgins is based in a bay called Sopers Hole, on the west end of the largest of the British Virgin Islands, Tortola. The island to our west is named after Blackbeard (Thatch Island; Blackbeard's real name was Edward Thatch).

Here Blackbeard is supposed to have developed an ingenious method of ambush where he would wait under full sail for merchant vessels to pass, then pull the pin on his anchor and ambush them as they passed.

To even think that a full ship could creep up and ambush another is quite ingenious. Piracy and creative ambush are somewhat synonymous.

In other words guerrilla tactics work (until they don’t). Be creative. Think mischief. Channel your Blackbeard.

The truly creative types do this whilst remaining within their own code (and the law).

6. Know when to get out

Our old hero Blackbeard received his King's Pardon, yet just didn't quite know when to get out.

He had one or two more raids and was subsequently killed by soldiers attached to the Governor of Virginia.

What you can learn here: if you have a get out of jail card, be grateful and move on, pirate.

The Takeaway

In a nutshell pirates didn't operate to societal rules.

Some of their behaviours we have no desire to emulate. And yet the best ones did operate to their own code based on collaboration, democracy and egalitarianism.

These aspects gave them freedom to innovate. We can learn from their innovations.

Whether it’s finding a mentor, collaborating or crafting the perception of your brand to influence reality, the above tips serve to broaden your efficacy as a marketer.

Sailing Virgins can run your company's offsite on one or more large, fully catered catamarans in the British Virgin Islands. So much better than a conference room if you want to milk some creativity. Email us if you'd like to hear more.

[email protected]

(Thanks to Alexander van der Laan and Katie Skillen for assistance with this piece.)