Говорят, что самая лучшая обертка у бананов, но вот вам, какой бы замечательный продукт вы не создали, упаковка обязательно потребуется. Нынешнее изобилие форм и материалов для нее относительно недавняя роскошь. Очень часто изобретателям и предпринимателям приходилось подстраиваться под имевшиеся форматы, представлявшие собой технологические «бутылочные горлышки» производства. К слову, сперва бутылочное стекло не могло выдерживать шипучих напитков. Бум шампанского и пива случился лишь после прорыва в его изготовлении. Тюбики, придуманные для красок, позаимствовали аптекари, консервы спонсировал Наполеон, аэрозольными баллончиками изначально американские солдаты боролись с москитами в Тихом океане, а короткая длина современных песен – результат ограниченности виниловых носителей. Упаковка одновременно и незаметна, и всемогуща.

Need a quick test of your self confidence – try reading a book about the history of product packaging while sitting in the middle of an airport with everyone around you reading John Grisham, Danielle Steel and the Twilight series. It may make you feel a little odd…but no one wants to sit next to you, so you have plenty of room. And by the time you’ve finished, you’ll never see any of those people again – and you’ll have read a pretty interesting book.

Total Package is well written, well researched and well presented. Subjects which could easily turn dry as a dissertation were handled with care (get it? It’s a packaging book) and made for an entertaining read. Items which we see everyday are looked at in a new way, effectively analyzing them as they were analyzed at the time of their invention – have you ever really thought about how the collapsible BOX was invented??? Research data into color preferences, the shape and labeling of packaging and boxes and the importance of brand recognition and packaging changes were all topics of a multi-billion dollar industry which literally takes place in front of our eyes every day – yet you rarely notice – which the author points out is almost the point.

Although I enjoyed it immensely, I would have to say a good 30% of it could (should) have been edited out. Some parts got repetitive (I lost count of how many times we were told how wonderful the Tide logo is), and some of the research drifted a little too far into shopper psychology which was less interesting. It’s also worth mentioning that the title is more than 10 years old, so some of the references were a little dated – I don’t think the impact of WalMart on packaging practices was mentioned once. But still a worthwhile read. ( )