Oddbins continues to try new, and quite daring, marketing. As well as the wine blogger case I’ve written about before, there have been other tongue-in-cheek promotions such as the rant against Olympic brand censorship.

The latest promotion is for a series of special weekend discounts for 4 groups of people who they believe deserve a little more love than others in 2013. Great idea!

“Sticks & Stones may break your bones, but words can break hearts”, so why not share a glass of wine to mend them?

Discounting is everywhere, especially in the new year, so we’ve come to expect it. How do you make your promotion stand out, and get shared? Well, focus it. Instead of making it a free-for-all, which really only results in making everyone expect discounts all the time and never pay full-price for a bottle again, it really needs to be about raising the brand profile, communicating some sort of personality, having a bit of fun. If you do get these right, you’ll hopefully have more customers seeking you out throughout the year rather than chasing the latest deals.

So who do Oddbins believe deserve this extra love? Well, how about:

• Mothers (4-6 January 2013 – oops, missed it!)
• Bankers & Journalists (11-13 January, 2013)
• Germans (18-20 January, 2013)
• Gingers (25-30 January, 2013)

… and “If anybody manages to pick up the discount every weekend and can prove it by way of receipts, they may be in line for some bonus extra loving…”

Interesting selection indeed! Sorry to the mothers who might have missed the recent promotion, but I’m sure there are some bankers, journalists and Germans out there ready to make the trip. As for the final category, I defer to the amazing Tim Minchin … and remind you that “only a ginger can call another ginger, ginger”