Birchbox is one of the most oft-cited inspirations in ideation sessions for brands of all stripes. It’s synonymous with the subscription-based e-commerce business model so alluring to established brands that are virtually handcuffed into traditional retail outlets – from Saks to Safeway.

While established beauty brands can’t simply start over as an upstart offering, they can adopt entrepreneurial, simple, business-growing principles to act start-up nimble starting today…

1. Launch Private Beta

Birchbox launched as – and remains – a private community. In the software world, this is known as “private beta.” To this day, you have to be invited by a member of Birchbox, which certainly adds to the allure.

Beauty brands could take a page from this playbook. Create exclusive packaging available only online, or at certain retailers or salons, or when you buy a Mercedes, for example. Create limited edition ‘skins’ in seasonal colors for cosmetics. This is where simple packaging innovation can create attraction not unlike the prestige of certain red-soled shoes…

2. Beware the Samesies

In beauty, just as in any product category, differentiation is tough. And creating new products that aren’t Samesies (i.e., that truly stand out as unique in the marketplace) has become a bit of a unicorn-like pursuit.

By engaging the end-user as a key part of the R&D lab, Birchbox has re-defined the relationship between manufacturer and consumer.

3. Take things away

For teams whose job it is to make things, the design principle of “taking non-essential things away” can be counterintuitive – but powerful. Birchbox took away the confusion and trial-and-error of beauty product buying by curating products tailored to the consumer. By examining not what they can provide, but what they can eliminate, can unleash breakthrough packaging potential.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: These principles are drawn from Hunter Thurman’s new book, Brand Be Nimble: How Big Brands Can Thrive by Innovating Like Start-ups. Written by Hunter Thurman, innovation thought leader and founder of Thriveplan, the book is a result of Thurman’s global experience across every consumer packaged goods category, complemented by his work as an innovation mentor to Cincinnati’s start-up accelerator, The Brandery.