Mumbai: Today, hair removal amongst women has become a matter of choice. While some like to keep it natural by not eliminating their body hair, most women still prefer the squeaky-clean feeling of soft, supple hairless skin.
Launched in Q3 2020, as an offshoot of popular men’s grooming brand Bombay Shaving Company, Bombae is a conscientious, progressive and premium brand for women that has presence across hair removal, skin, hair, and bath & body solutions. In a short span, Bombae has quickly become a challenger to established brands in the Indian personal care, hygiene and hair removal space; attracting investments from 30 angels, Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt and Sixth Sense Ventures. Currently the brand offers an entire shaving regimen- shaving foam, razor and aftershave. It also has other products like hair removal creams, face razors, and trimmers.
Indiantelevison.com spoke to Bombae chief business officer Siddha Jain who chatted about the brand’s evolution and journey, what the brand stands for, the women’s grooming category, and more.
At Bombae, erstwhile Bombay Shaving Company Women, Jain is responsible for driving business critical mandates and building equity across channels and services. Her multi-dimensional qualities as a leader has ensured a fundamentally strong, people centric, sustainable business, with enormous potential. Just over a year old, Bombae already accounts for 20 per cent of Bombay Shaving Company’s revenues. Her vision is to make Bombae the go-to-brand for hair removal products for women in India. She strives boldly to break archaic narratives and celebrate the fact that hair removal is a personal choice. The brand encourages women to shun stereotypes, and enables them to be #SmoothAF.
Putting things into perspective, with salons shuttered for months due to the lockdown, the Indian women's grooming & hair removal industry, which is worth Rs 20,000 crore, saw a significant rise. Revenue increased from Rs 37.7 crore in FY21 to Rs 110 crore in FY22, with the strike rate for FY23 currently standing at Rs300 crore for Bombae. The women's grooming category is predicted to expand at a 21 per cent year on year rate for the next five years.
As a brand, Bombae’s primary target audience is providing hair removal solutions for all individuals that identify as women between the age gap of 18-40 years old it aims to ‘re-imagine hair removal experience for these bold, badass women of today’. Think anywhere from Kaira in Dear Zindagi to Piku in, well, Piku.
Bombae is an omnichannel business and is present across online and offline channels - available on the brand website, e-marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Blinkit, Instamart, Cred; and across retail outlets like Health & Glow, Metro, Reliance, Shoppers Stop, Apollo Pharmacy, its own EBOs and many more. It will be looking to scale brand presence across these platforms.
Edited excerpts:
On the brand journey
Bombae was conceptualised when a group of intentful women at Bombay Shaving Company couldn’t go to salons during lockdown and decided to take the matter at hand. “We are a grooming company, why the hell do we not have any products for women?!!!” We were astounded by the painstaking efforts we as women go through for hair removal, and our personal experiences made us reflect how we had normalised our daily struggles. We realised that there isn't a single product in the market that was made keeping our bodies and needs in mind and were substandard at best. Some too painful, some too expensive, and most ineffective. We went back to the drawing board with ourselves as the muse. We consulted dermatologists and hair removal experts to design our first range. Through the love we received for our limited range, we got a sense of the depth of the problem as well as our ability to fundamentally solve it. Our goal is very clear – to reimagine hair removal for all individuals that identify as women. It is to aid this reimagination that we created a separate entity – so that we are unhinged, bold & honest in our approach in addressing this category. Our growth in the past two years is testament to this - we are already 25 per cent of the overall business at Visage lines (Bombay Shaving Company and Bombae combined).
On making place for Bombae in a cluttered category
[The goal] Reimaging hair removal, end-to-end: We believe hair removal is a spectrum (like everything else) and have offerings across the spectrum. There isn’t any brand that owns this space end-to-end like we do. Bombae is all about results. Which means our products don’t just work, they work hard.
[The people] For women, by women: Bombae is entirely a “by women, for women” brand. Bombae gets women. Our products are crafted with a deep understanding of women and women’s bodies.
[The personality] We are free spirits. We redefine normal. We are badasses.: We’re not out here trying to tell women how to live their life. What matters to us isn’t why you want your body hair removed, but how you do it.
Bae-sically, we are a brand made by women, reimagining hair removal for women. Our offerings are rooted in their realities and their needs. So, while we understand why they’d want to remove hair, we also recognise that it’s their choice. We celebrate our consumers for who they are and talk to them like we know them. Because we do. We’re outspoken, loud, bold and aren’t afraid to tell women’s stories how they should be told.
On filling the market gap in the women’s grooming category
For women, hair removal is not a functional thing, but it is a part of her beauty ritual, should she choose to remove hair. The fundamental problem that has been around hair removal in salons is that it is painstaking, inconvenient and a massive time & budget sink. When it comes to products available out there, some are borrowed from male counterpart brands while others have functional/ experiential gaps which make them subpar. Our approach towards curating the portfolio is providing elevated DIY offerings that solve these real consumer problems and have longevity in the consumer’s life. We build products that are faster, smoother and easier than current services or products in the market as well as built for different parts of her body/ lifecycle needs. Bombae builds 0% pain & 100% smooth products for any hair, anywhere. For example, we have crafted a razor called Rollplay that comes with a patented and unique roller design that enables it to offer the smoothest and fastest shave possible. Not only is it kind to skin, it is kinder to the environment as it is made of recycled ocean plastic. Similarly, our portfolio has offerings across:
. Facial hair: Face & eyebrow razors (including biodegradable options), Facial hair trimmer
. Body hair: Body razors (with bikini razor variants), Hair removal creams (variants made with shea butter and aloe vera), wax strips (variants for different skin types), Trimmer for underarm and bikini areas
. Hair removal ritual: pre & post shave gel, shaving foams
. Hygiene: Menstrual cup (ring and step variants), sterilizer, intimate wash
On the recent launch of Rollplay razor, and the kind of opportunity you are trying to tap
With the recent launch of Rollplay razor, we are seizing an extraordinary opportunity to revolutionize the shaving experience. Shaving doesn't have to be a chore or a source of discomfort. While most innovations in the razor segment focus on men's razors, Rollplay razor goes beyond functionality and injects a much-needed element of fun into the process. We like to think of it as the ‘iPhone of razors’, where everyone can enjoy the sheer delight of smoothness and the freedom to be themselves. From its captivating unboxing experience to the unique roller, everything about this razor is truly exceptional.
On Alaya F’s association with the brand
We have been associated with Alaya F for more than two years now for all our Bombae products. There is no finer personification of the brand than Alaya F. From her postings signed 'AF' to the way she walks, Alaya is a non-conformist who personifies today's brave and outspoken woman. Our collaboration with her is a step towards strengthening our bond with our customers, who are eager to change the game and take the world by storm.
On the advertising and marketing strategy planned for products under the Bombae umbrella
Our strategy is simple - to be real, bold and demonstrate the elevated offerings of Bombae in a never seen before manner - for any hair, anywhere.
We’re the realest: We have stayed true to the promise of being bold, honest and irreverent in everything we do. Our aesthetic is an extension of our identity so we keep it a 100% real. Real hair, real bodies, real results, real skin, we’re not afraid to bare it all. Unlike other brands showing smooth skin before and after hair removal. Our recent campaign on our Fuzzoff trimmer was not permitted to be run on certain platforms on account of showing real body hair like never before.
We’re building interesting narratives: Be it our Rollplay campaign where we romance the roller in an extremely playful manner to events like #SmoothAF comedy – a standup with female comics talking about their lives and body hair, to educating in new ways like rap battles to breaking the hairarchy – we constantly challenge status quo and stereotypes around women’s body hair.
From a product marketing PoV, we’re a conscientious bunch: We’re conscious about our baes - our people and our planet.
. “Empowearth”: We are a completely plastic neutral brand and have biodegradable variants of most of our products.
. “Empowher”: We explicitly invest in enabling upskilling of women and building successful infra for women’s success – be it from instituting menstrual leave in our workplace, to investing in women-led businesses.
On the media mix that Bombae plans to utilise
We have a very objective-focused approach to campaign conceptualization. Objectives can broadly be threefold - be it equity/ awareness building, product/ category education, people/ passion. Depending on each objective and target audience, we go deep into the pulse of the consumer (especially for product/ category education) to develop our messaging and choice of media. Some campaigns may be purely digital campaigns with a focus on a mix of video-focused platforms ranging from YouTube, IG, OTT, Snapchat, etc. while we might evaluate TV for some more mass-market products as the brand expands reach.
On the significant markets (geographically) for Bombae - India and international
In India, we are focusing on the top 10 markets – Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow. We are in the process of international launches in countries with strong Indian diaspora like Middle East & SEA.
On the innovations that Bombae expects to disrupt the women’s grooming category with
At Bombae, we are always on the lookout for remarkable disruptions in the women's grooming category through our innovative approach. Our strategic focus lies in developing new products that enhance ergonomics, offering an elevated experience to our valued customers. Moreover, we aim to transform the grooming experience from a necessity to a luxury by introducing complementary grooming products and creating indulgent ‘rituals’. Bombae is dedicated to revolutionizing women's grooming and setting new standards of excellence.
On your vision and way forward for brand Bombae
Our vision is simple: When a consumer thinks hair removal, they think Bombae, so much so that Bombae becomes a verb when it comes to hair removal. That itself is our niche. There isn’t any brand that owns this space end-to-end like we do. While the case for each product is different, the overall case of the brand is to harness the power of our innovation to continuously craft expert and thoughtful hair removal solutions, crafted for women by women. For our category, advertising plays a three-pronged role –
1. Educating the consumer against archaic myths when it comes to hair removal products
2. Building memorability and equity for our brand
3. Conveying the value proposition & product superiority to the consumer.
