Long after the cake has been cut and the rice has been thrown, it's the one tangible thing that you can take with you. That wedding dress is the wrapper on your wedding day, the physical manifestation of a warm and fuzzy concept. In the old days, virtually everything had to come with some sort of wrapper. The packaging was as much a part of the product as it was a part of the brand. As our economy continues to become more digital, the role of the wrapper becomes a vitally important concept.
Some pundits riff about all products becoming services and all services becoming products.
I don't think that's what it's about. I think it's about us starting to separate goods and services from their wrappers. The music business, of course, has this very problem coming out of its ears. But it's not only in the land of the CD that we find this problem. The past few months have seen quite a kerfuffle in the book business as well.