HOPE Wine
Editor’s Choice 2008
By Kate Burrows   
Monday, 01 December 2008
smc “People tend to be more loyal to socially responsible companies [like HOPE Wine],” Vice President of Sales Tiffany Goodman (left) says.
“People tend to be more loyal to socially responsible companies [like HOPE Wine],” Vice President of Sales Tiffany Goodman (left) says.
When young entrepreneur Jake Kloberdanz founded HOPE Wine in 2006, he had a vision to build more than a traditionally successful company. He had the goal to create an influential wine company devoted to raising money and awareness for some of the world’s most far-reaching conditions and diseases.

With the help of seven friends, all with managerial and sales experience in the wine industry, Kloberdanz officially launched the HOPE Wine brand in 2007, offering chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Its newest varietals, sauvignon blanc and zinfandel, were introduced in 2008. Each wine is paired with a specific charitable cause; wine labels feature distinctive ribbons to show support for breast cancer, autism, AIDS, green causes and aid for the children of fallen troops.

The majority of the company’s growth to date has taken place through grassroots marketing and word-of-mouth, Vice President of Sales Tiffany Goodman says. “This is what makes our company so different,” she stresses. “We all get out there and talk about our brand, and that’s how word has spread. We’ve found many people that really get excited about the concept, and people tend to be more loyal to socially responsible companies.”

HOPE Wine has grown tremendously in 2008 and, as it ends its first fiscal year, it has helped raise millions of dollars for its causes through sponsoring, planning and volunteering for events, in addition to donations from its varietals.

Each bottle of HOPE Wine is affordable – all five of its varietals are priced under $20 – and 50 percent of its profits are donated to various charities. “We want to show people that we’re dedicated to these causes,” Goodman says. “We develop relationships with customers to raise awareness.”

The organization relies completely on word-of-mouth to gain recognition, she says. “Wine is a high-margin industry anyway,” she says. “We didn’t want to raise the prices – we keep our prices at the market level – but we’re still able to make the donations and spread awareness at the same time.”

Drink to This
In 2009, HOPE Wine will rebrand itself to ONEHOPE, signifying a more universal approach to making its mark on a variety of causes.

“The ONEHOPE label perfectly articulates our brand, and takes us from the potential of being one of the top wine brands to being one of the top brands in general,” CEO Jake Kloberdanz said.
   
“Our slogan we will be hitting the nation with is ‘ONEHOPE … many causes. This details the concept of many causes, which filter up to one overarching cause: Hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a cure, hope for whatever your cause is.”

HOPE Wine by the Numbers
  • $100,000 – The amount of in-kind donations the company has made in the past fiscal year;
  • $25,000 – The amount of cash donations contributed by HOPE Wine;
  • 15+ –The number of charities that have benefited from HOPE Wine donations;
  • 550 – The number of accounts in which HOPE Wine is for sale throughout the United States;
  • 100,000 – The number of trees the company plans to plant in 2009 through the profits of its sauvignon blanc wine, which is dedicated to green causes; and
  • 550 miles – The distance HOPE Wine employees rode during the AIDS Lifecycle event, in which the team raised $20,000 for AIDS research.
This story originally ran in the March/April issue of Food and Drink.
 
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