Shantanu Deshpande launched Bombay Shaving Company in 2015 after a single observation: Indian men had no grooming ritual worth speaking of.
They shaved. That was the entirety of it. No pre-shave oil. No post-shave balm. No face wash designed for men. No moisturiser. The global men’s grooming market had been building for a decade Bulldog, Jack Black, and American Crew had cult followings in the West. India had nothing equivalent.
The gap wasn’t demand. It was awareness.
BSC’s first product wasn’t a razor. It was a shaving kit, a curated box with every step of a shaving ritual Indian men didn’t know they were missing. Pre-shave scrub. Shaving brush. Cream. Post-shave balm. Each product labelled with what it was for and why.
They weren’t selling a product. They were selling a habit.
The brand grew through content, YouTube tutorials on technique, grooming guides, skin type quizzes. By educating first and selling second, BSC built an audience that felt grateful to the brand before they bought a single thing.
BSC crossed ₹250 crore in revenue by FY23. Colgate-Palmolive invested validating that Indian men’s grooming had become a real category.
Takeaways
1. Creating a category requires education before advertising, teach the problem before you sell the solution.
2. Ritual sells more than product. Build the habit, and repeat purchase follows automatically.
