Hempel ABM – Specified To Last

Strategi

Hempel identified The Middle East as a new strategic focus area. The region’s construction boom presented a major opportunity - not just to supply essential coating protection solutions, but to drive innovation that enhances durability and sustainability in the industry.

Breaking into this market wasn’t necessarily complex, but it demanded deep engagement with key decision-makers: specifying engineers and advisors from global consultancies.
However, Hempel had low visibility in this segment, coatings were rarely prioritized in early project specifications, and engineering firms weren’t proactively reaching out as coatings were considered a minor detail rather than a critical specification factor. Internally, marketing and sales teams operated in silos, limiting their ability to drive meaningful engagement.

From research and interviews with key industry professionals and talks with AI-generated customer profiles - built from the real customer data, Hempel also gained insights into its customers' challenges: Complex regulations were often neither fully understood nor prioritized, leading to over-specification driven by concerns over fire risks, structural integrity, and legal consequences.
These were the critical challenges Hempel needed to address to establish relevance and credibility with this target group, which would solve their own challenge.

This meant that Hempel had to try a new go-to-market approach. Based on these insights, they created the Specified to Last brand platform to build relationships with key specifying engineers and advisors. This was a shift from product-focused marketing targeting coating applicators to an ABM program designed to engage this new target group through a broader narrative around durability and sustainability.

Løsning

With a tailored ABM program, Hempel targeted 33 key accounts – large engineering consultancies shaping the Middle East’s most ambitious projects and home to the specifying engineers and advisors responsible for critical project decisions.

A key component of the solution was a structured work plan where sales and marketing met bi-weekly to review lead progress and refine attack plans. These regular sessions ensured alignment, allowing both teams to discuss account-specific opportunities and adjust their approach based on real-time insights.

To support this approach, Hempel built an inspirational, educational digital universe around specifications, corrosion protection standards, trends, and legal requirements. This included a Specified to Last Knowledge Hub, an educational email series, in-depth white papers, and direct access to free advisory services from local experts.

Through the Knowledge Hub, Hempel could channel its expertise to specifying engineers and advisors, providing them with valuable educational insights and materials. The knowledge and insights were distributed through a mix of social selling, targeted social media activities, and email marketing - some content was broad, while other materials were carefully tailored to the agreed-upon attack plans, ensuring relevance to each key account.

By doing so, Hempel created a continuous conversation with specifiers while reinforcing collaboration between marketing and sales.