Bombay Shaving Company's Curious Instagram Marketing

The other day, while going through my Instagram feed, I came across a very interesting ad by Bombay Shaving Company, which featured a Sikh gentleman.

Coming from Punjab, I know how risky such a proposition is- Sikhs do not cut their hair traditionally, which made me wonder if the company that sold shaving products was out of its mind featuring a Sikh gentleman in its ad.

But curiosity got the better of me, and on watching it further, I realized that the advertisement was for their beard grooming line of products, such as beard oils- not directly for their shaving equipment.

The reason why I found this very interesting is that while beard grooming products have gained a lot of popularity recently, no brand has so far marketed these products directly for Sikhs- even though a lot of Sikhs use these products, as per a primary survey I did, and gone are the days when Simco was used. In fact, beard grooming products are very popular gifting products for Sikh men.

Bombay Shaving Company successfully identified a segment of users that either formed a moderately large user base, or had the potential to do so. This also reminded me of Blue Ocean Strategy, where we studied how companies can increase their products' demand by looking at traditional non-customer;- the way Nintendo might have wanted to market its Wii not just to gaming enthusiasts, but also to people who are into fitness in the safety and comfort of their homes.

Only time will tell us how successful this campaign turns out to be for Bombay Shaving Company, but there is no doubt that it was very interesting, and in some ways, bold. This was just an observation that I found interesting; I didn't mean to hurt any religious sentiments.

Would love to hear some thoughts on this!