Anopol — We do difficult.
A highly specialist business. Decades of expertise. Too few people knew it existed. We worked with Anopol’s team to define what made the business valuable, identify new sectors and give its capabilities a clear proposition: “We do difficult.”
The expertise was there.
The visibility wasn’t.
The opportunity came into focus through an unexpected conversation in a pub. Someone nearby was looking for a company that could carry out specialist stainless-steel surface treatment. Anopol could help. Yet someone who had been in the area for 20 years had never heard of the business.
It exposed a wider commercial problem. Anopol was a long-established specialist in stainless-steel pickling, passivation and surface treatment, but its reputation travelled mainly through existing relationships. Repeat business was a strength. As some of that work gradually eroded, low visibility left the company too dependent on a familiar customer base.
The task was to make its expertise easier to recognise, understand and buy – and to find customers who needed capabilities they might not know existed.
Working with the team
Define the value.
Find the opportunity.
We brought the team together through workshops to examine what Anopol did particularly well, the difficult problems customers brought to it and the reasons those customers returned. The proposition came from the business’s real strengths, expressed in language the whole team could use.
From there, we explored new markets and sectors. The starting point was the application: where would surface cleanliness, precision and corrosion resistance matter enough for Anopol’s specialist knowledge to command attention?
Team workshops
Brought technical and commercial knowledge together to define the strengths and customer problems behind the proposition.
A clear proposition
Defined a shared proposition around specialist surface-treatment expertise, expressed through “We do difficult.”
New markets & sectors
Identified applications beyond the established customer base, focusing on demanding environments where Anopol’s expertise mattered.
Explain the difference.
Show why it matters.
Passivation is not plating. Rather than adding a metallic coating, it treats the stainless-steel surface to remove free-iron contamination and support the protective oxide layer responsible for corrosion resistance. Pickling addresses oxide scale, heat tint and surface contamination; the appropriate process depends on the component and its intended use.
That distinction matters in environments where surface condition is part of the engineering requirement. A component that looks clean is not necessarily suitable for a contamination-sensitive process.
We connected the science with the customer’s problem: protecting demanding processes, achieving the required surface condition and handling work that called for specialist judgement.
The campaign
We do difficult.
A short line that gave a complex business a clear commercial story.
It expressed Anopol’s willingness and ability to take on demanding work: unusual components, exacting surface requirements and problems that needed more than a standard treatment. It became a shared idea for the team and a reason for new customers to start a conversation.
We developed the shared proposition into a campaign that communicated Anopol’s science-driven expertise, supported by the people, processes and actual work behind it.
Take the expertise
into new sectors.
The market-development work opened up opportunities in semiconductor manufacturing, aviation and healthcare – sectors where specialist surface treatment could be important to the application.
Anopol’s subsequent work included supply for Intel, with stainless-steel ducting used in a demanding manufacturing environment. Other opportunities involved precise and complex components, including medical applications.
The common thread was not simply a new industry name. It was a customer problem that made Anopol’s depth of knowledge commercially relevant.
Client perspective
The client’s view.
“AlignandPull brought our team together around a clear proposition and turned our science-driven expertise into a powerful campaign: ‘We do difficult.’ Then the phones started ringing and the emails came in: ‘We’ve got something difficult—can you help?’ It opened doors to new clients, new sectors and new revenue opportunities.”
A clearer proposition.
A broader customer base.
The work helped Anopol build new client relationships and partnerships alongside its repeat business. The team had a clearer way to describe its value and a wider view of the markets it could serve.
Anopol had a consistent campaign message to take to prospective customers beyond its established network.
Project account: James Cook, AlignandPull. Technical background: Anopol’s explanation of passivation.
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