SelfBrand Strategy X. The Crusader

Blake Mycoskie

The Crusader
Blake Mycoskie

For many people, doing something meaningful and significant is much more important than achieving the standard definition of success. Look at TOMS Shoes: for every pair of its iconic cloth, rubber-soled "alpargatas" sold, the company gives away a pair to someone who needs it. Instead of a business with a charity tie-in, the whole concept is to buy one pair of shoes today so TOMS can give one tomorrow. That idea led company founder Blake Mycoskie to the name, Tomorrow Shoes, which he shortened to TOMS Shoes. The brand's tagline, "One for One," communicates the brand's shoe giveaway mission.

Being synonymous with a cause or creating a new cause has propelled many people onto a bigger stage. Think of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, or Gloria Steinem and women's liberation. The key ingredient of the Crusader mindset is a commitment to a cause, a quest to make a difference in the world.

The Crusader Personality

TOMS shoes

The Crusader Brand

Crusaders are people who prefer doing something meaningful more than just making money. You believe in devoting yourself to giving and helping others. You are committed to a cause that you believe will make a difference - even change the world. Your definition of success is to help others to achieve happiness and success, and to make the world better in some significant way. You can have a hard time expressing your own needs. Because you tend to submerge your own needs in order to cater to the need of others, sometimes you feel overwhelmed and controlled by others' needs. You want to be accepted and appreciated by others and to make a difference in the world.

Most of the time you:

  • Enjoy giving more than receiving
  • Know how to make others like you

But sometimes you:

  • Feel upset if you can't help others
  • Hide problems you are having

Generally people see you as:

  • Having a cause you care passionately about
  • Motivated by doing good more than by money
  • Having high ethical standards

But you can:

  • Sacrifice your needs in favor of others'
  • Get carried away with the cause
  • Expect others to care as much as you do

How to Execute the Crusader Strategy

See You Are a Brand, p. 70 - 71 for ideas, examples and exercises on how to execute the crusader, or cause strategy. You must be able to fill in the blank in the statement:

Crusader Positioning: I am synonymous with __________ cause.