An Investigation Into the AR Packaging Marketing Strategy Methods of Chinese Mooncakes 

Chi-Hsiung Chen¹, Jun Hong Chen², Fang Cheng Hsu² 
(1. Department of Creative Product Design, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan;
2. Department of Digital Media Design, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan)

Abstract: Traditionally, during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Chinese community, friends and relatives offer mooncakes to each other as a token of appreciation. This has formed a longstanding custom and serves as the most important sales period of the year. The longstanding homogeneous competition in the market has failed to attract the interest of the younger generation while increasing competition has resulted from the entry of non-pastry-industry companies into the market. Companies must seek innovative marketing strategies to continue to create additional corporate value and profits in the face of these changing times and trends. Augmented Reality (AR) technology has matured in recent years and be activated by simply scanning the barcode on a package with a cellphone. The era of cellphone applications for marketing has arrived, and it was continuously been expanded from personal to social media and e-commerce. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the change in marketing strategies for the AR packaging of mooncakes. We first analyzed the relationship between AR information and the core concepts of Marketing 4.0 by exploring the role of packaging in the marketing mix and the interactive experience generated by AR packaging through literary review. The four marketing combinations of “interactive marketing”, “cultural aesthetics”, “social effect”, and “e-commerce” were summarized and resulted in the effects of “cross-industry alliance”, “digital life”, “information connection”, and “cocreation of value”. The conclusion conclusively proposes three principles: 1) information authenticity, 2) cross-industry cooperation, and 3) value transformation — which provide a reference for the integration of technology and marketing. 

Key words: pastry industry; augmented reality; strategic alliance

JEL code: M310