The Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate

Have you iden­ti­fied your Stupid Majority yet?

The story of the pre­vail­ing under­dog seems to be as old as human­ity itself. And the under­dog strategy is also impact­ful in pub­lic rela­tions (PR).

As a PR advisor since 2005, I’ve helped many brands side with a Smart Minority in the fight against a Stupid Majority — often with spec­tac­u­lar results.

This blog art­icle will out­line how this under­dog PR strategy works.

Here we go:

The Stupid Majority PR Strategy

The Conversion Theory

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The Conversion Theory: The Powerful Minority

The dis­pro­por­tion­al power of minor­it­ies is known as the con­ver­sion the­ory. ²Conversion the­ory of minor­ity influ­ence. (2021, February 12). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​_​o​f​_​m​i​n​o​r​i​t​y​_​i​n​f​l​u​e​nce

How does it work?

The social cost of hold­ing a dif­fer­ent view than the major­ity is high. This increased cost explains why minor­it­ies often hold their opin­ions more firmly. It takes determ­in­a­tion to go against the norm. ³Moscovici, S. (1980). Toward a the­ory of con­ver­sion beha­viour. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 209 – 239. New York: Academic Press

In con­trast, many major­ity mem­bers don’t hold their opin­ions so firmly. They might belong to the major­ity for no oth­er reas­on than that every­one else seems to be. ⁴Chryssochoou, X. and Volpato, C. (2004). Social Influence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto, Social Justice Research, 17, 4, 357 – 388

“In groups, the minor­ity can have a dis­pro­por­tion­ate effect, con­vert­ing many ‘major­ity’ mem­bers to their own cause. This is because many major­ity group mem­bers are not strong believ­ers in its cause. They may be simply going along because it seems easi­er or that there is no real altern­at­ive. They may also have become dis­il­lu­sioned with the group pur­pose, pro­cess, or lead­er­ship and are seek­ing a viable altern­at­ive.”
Source: Changingminds​.org ⁵Conversion Theory. (2023). Changingminds​.org. https://​chan​ging​minds​.org/​e​x​p​l​a​n​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​h​e​o​r​i​e​s​/​c​o​n​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​_​t​h​e​o​r​y​.​htm

According to con­ver­sion the­ory, while major­it­ies often claim norm­at­ive social influ­ence, minor­it­ies strive for eth­ic­al high ground. 

Given the power of norm­at­ive social influ­ence, minor­it­ies must stick togeth­er in tight-knit in-groups that can verb­al­ise the same mes­sage repeatedly.

Learn more: Conversion Theory: The Disproportionate Influence of Minorities

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Diffusion of Innovations

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Diffusion of Innovations

The Diffusion of Innovations the­ory, pro­posed by Everett Rogers in 1962, remains a frame­work for under­stand­ing how new ideas, tech­no­lo­gies, products, or prac­tices spread through soci­et­ies over time. ⁶Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5^th ed.). Free Press.

The the­ory out­lines the pro­cess by which innov­a­tions are adop­ted by indi­vidu­als and groups, emphas­ising the role of com­mu­nic­a­tion chan­nels, social net­works, and the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the innov­a­tion itself. 

• Innovators (2,5%)
• Early Adopters (13,5%)
• Early Majority (34%)
• Late Majority (34%)
• Laggards (16%)

By examin­ing real-life examples, we can bet­ter com­pre­hend the prin­ciples of this the­ory and its applic­a­tions in vari­ous fields:

• Smartphone adop­tion. The rap­id adop­tion of smart­phones provides a com­pel­ling example of the dif­fu­sion of innov­a­tions. Initially, smart­phones were adop­ted by tech enthu­si­asts and early adop­ters who val­ued their advanced fea­tures. Over time, as prices decreased and func­tion­al­ity improved, smart­phones became more access­ible to the gen­er­al pub­lic. Today, they are nearly ubi­quit­ous, illus­trat­ing the dif­fu­sion pro­cess from innov­at­ors to early adop­ters, early major­ity, late major­ity, and finally, laggards.
• Social media adop­tion. The rise of social media plat­forms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram exem­pli­fies the dif­fu­sion of innov­a­tions in the digit­al realm. These plat­forms began with small user bases but quickly gained momentum as early adop­ters spread pos­it­ive exper­i­ences to their social net­works. As social media became ingrained in every­day life, more con­ser­vat­ive users gradu­ally embraced these plat­forms, lead­ing to wide­spread adop­tion across demographics.
• Electric vehicle adop­tion. The adop­tion of elec­tric vehicles rep­res­ents a con­tem­por­ary example of the dif­fu­sion of innov­a­tions with­in the auto­mot­ive industry. Initially, EVs faced scep­ti­cism and lim­ited con­sumer interest due to con­cerns about range, char­ging infra­struc­ture, and price. However, as tech­no­logy advanced and envir­on­ment­al aware­ness grew, early adop­ters embraced EVs. Government incent­ives and improve­ments in bat­tery tech­no­logy fur­ther accel­er­ated adop­tion, lead­ing to broad­er accept­ance and main­stream adoption.
• Streaming adop­tion. The shift from tra­di­tion­al tele­vi­sion to online stream­ing ser­vices illus­trates the dif­fu­sion of innov­a­tions in the enter­tain­ment sec­tor. Platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video ini­tially attrac­ted tech-savvy early adop­ters seek­ing altern­at­ives to tra­di­tion­al cable TV. As these ser­vices improved their con­tent lib­rar­ies and user inter­faces, they gained trac­tion among the early and late major­ity. Today, stream­ing has become the dom­in­ant con­tent con­sump­tion mode for mil­lions worldwide.
• Telemedicine adop­tion. The adop­tion of telemedi­cine ser­vices provides a recent example of innov­a­tion dif­fu­sion in the health­care industry, par­tic­u­larly high­lighted dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Initially met with scep­ti­cism due to con­cerns about patient con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and the qual­ity of care, telemedi­cine gained accept­ance among early adop­ters seek­ing con­veni­ence and access­ib­il­ity. As reg­u­lat­ory bar­ri­ers were over­come and health­care pro­viders integ­rated tele­health into their prac­tices, broad­er adop­tion fol­lowed, with patients and pro­viders recog­nising its benefits.

The Diffusion of Innovations the­ory offers insights into how new ideas and tech­no­lo­gies influ­ence soci­et­ies. Understanding these dynam­ics can inform pub­lic rela­tions strategies across diverse contexts.

“Diffusion research has helped under­stand new product adop­tion and dif­fu­sion, with net­work ana­lys­is and field exper­i­ments being prom­ising tools in under­stand­ing the con­sump­tion of new products.”
Source: Journal of Consumer Research ⁷Rogers, E. (1976). New Product Adoption and Diffusion. Journal of Consumer Research, 2, 290 – 301. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​6​/​2​0​8​642

Learn more: Diffusion of Innovations

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David and Goliath

We know the story:

Goliath, the giant Philistine war­ri­or, was defeated by the young David, who would later become the king of Israel. Being inferi­or in size and com­bat exper­i­ence, David used a sling­shot to defeat the mighty Goliath from a distance. 

“Giants are not what we think they are. The same qual­it­ies that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weak­ness.”
— Malcolm Gladwell

Instead of fight­ing Goliath on his terms (strength and power), David used his advant­ages (speed and accuracy).

In David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell out­lines the dynam­ic between map­ping your and your oppon­ent’s strengths and weak­nesses. He goes on to sug­gest that under­dogs have sig­ni­fic­ant advantages:

One could argue that David’s dis­ad­vant­ages (being more neg­li­gible and less exper­i­enced) forced him to out­smart his opponent. 

If David had been an exper­i­enced war­ri­or with the phys­ic­al size to match Goliath’s prowess, David would prob­ably have decided to fight him on equal terms, right?

How We Admire Underdogs

“There is no good or bad without us, there is only per­cep­tion. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.”
— Ryan Holiday

The legend of David and Goliath endures as we find com­fort in know­ing that the strongest does­n’t always win. The under­dog approach isn’t just help­ful in fight­ing; it has a proven track record of being highly use­ful in pub­lic relations.

In The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, Ryan Holiday describes how choos­ing the path of the most res­ist­ance max­im­ises our growth as both indi­vidu­als and organisations:

Having the odds stacked against you might not be as bad as it seems at first glance. If noth­ing else, it’s the start of a great story.

Yes, David exploits Goliath’s weak­nesses (not being fast or accur­ate enough to beat David from a dis­tance). However, David still chooses to fight Goliath on “his” grounds — to steal away “his” audi­ence. It’s safe to say that only a minor­ity thought that David would beat Goliath before the actu­al fight. 

From a PR per­spect­ive, David could sweep in from nowhere and beat the mar­ket lead­er by exploit­ing an inter­est­ing social phe­nomen­on … that the major­ity is some­times just wrong.

Stupid, even.

We cel­eb­rate that David chose a bet­ter weapon when we instead should cel­eb­rate his suc­cess­ful manip­u­la­tion of the Stupid Majority; from nowhere, David inser­ted him­self into the top spot — in just one bold move.

We respect David not only for his wits but for his guts.
After all, David did bring a fuck­ing sling­shot to a sword fight. 

The fact that a stag­ger­ing major­ity of bystand­ers — includ­ing one con­fid­ent Goliath — nev­er expec­ted David to stand a chance, well, that was what gave him the upper hand. 

Goliath? He was destined to fail. 

Not All Majorities Will Last

When lever­aging an under­dog pub­lic rela­tions strategy to beat a major­ity lead­er, it’s not about bring­ing bet­ter weapons; it’s about hav­ing guts and tak­ing on a major­ity that is stu­pid, incom­pet­ent, dead wrong — and more power­ful than you. 

The more sig­ni­fic­ant and dom­in­ant the major­ity, the more likely it is to con­sist of a sub­stan­tial silent major­ity who are just along for the ride, mainly because every­one else seems to be. 

Now, ima­gine this major­ity being just plain wrong.

If you can spot­light the major­ity’s stu­pid­ity, some cas­u­al sup­port­ers might feel betrayed by their major­ity lead­ers, caus­ing many such cas­u­al sup­port­ers to switch sides even faster.

Some major­it­ies of today are destined to be gone tomorrow.

Seeing a minor­ity defeat­ing a major­ity makes for good enter­tain­ment — when the major­ity is also stu­pid. And from a PR per­spect­ive? The big bad is about to beat the under­dog against all the odds. That’s a great story, just beg­ging to be told! 

What remains for us is to ask: are there any Stupid Majorities for us to take on?

Challenge a Stupid Majority

Stupid Majorities exist in your industry, too. And now that you know what to look for, you’ll soon start find­ing them everywhere. 

The Stupid Majority approach could res­ult in the most pro­found res­ults of your pub­lic rela­tions career:

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• The Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate
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“The under­ly­ing prin­ciples of strategy are endur­ing, regard­less of tech­no­logy or the pace of change.”
— Michael Porter

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