Falling on the 15th day of the eighth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar (falling on 4th October in 2017) the Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival is the second grandest festival in China after Chinese New Year.
For Chinese people, the festival means family reunion and peace, for big business it it is also presents an ideal opportunity to ply their offerings as well as engage customers with their brands.
In recent years, more and more multinational businesses, especially food brands, have launched Moon Festival campaigns in China.
Mooncake, a traditional Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, has become a key selling point.
McDonalds' McCafe first launched its mooncake gift pack in 2013, including eight flavor, from Mocca, Latte, to Greentea, Mocha.
KFC also launched a limited edition of fresh baked meat moooncakes during the festival season, with an affordable pricepoint of 34.5 yuan (around AU$6.60) for 6 cakes.
Pizza Hut China's Express service delivers an Aussie-inspired Moon Festival special deal, made of a pastry that is similar to mooncake, and a bottle of Australian red wine.
Starbucks, one of the earliest brands that started selling mooncakes in China, continually promotes their deal of coffee plus mooncakes.
World famous cookie brand OREO this year offers Chinese consumers four different flavors of mooncakes, including black chocolate, cocoa milk, cream and pineapple, and fudgy strawberry.
Source: starbucks china
Since 2012, Haagen-Dazs has started selling ice cream mooncakes in China, making the luxurious brand more widely known in China. Now they have more then ten series of mooncakes products, including yogurt flavor and customised gift pack.
Disney China even launched a dedicated for its selection of mooncakes, which features a wide range of designs and flavors.
Starbucks' Moon Festival strategy has been successfully penetrating the Chinese market steadily over the years.
Source: disney china
The chain runs research and development headquarters in China to create new food offerings that cater to more local tastes like mooncakes.
Localization doesn't work out all the time though - McCafe's 2013 mooncake project ended after the first trial.
Young generations in China are more attracted to the innovative mooncakes, as many expressed their excitement to see Western brands embracing Chinese food and willingness to try new items. One consumer posted a box of KFC mooncakes on Chinese social media platform Weibo, and commented "a bit nervous for the first time".
There have also been prominent critics of these modernised offerings compared with traditional mooncakes.
Editors at English-language expat mag did a taste trial on the newly issued OREO mooncakes and concluded that "for the most part they taste of sadness and disappointment."
Even for the classic OREO original flavor, one commentator said it got "the opposite of what Oreos are known to taste like".
Meanwhile, even high-profile Western luxury brands have also taken the opportunity to create high-end mooncake gift-sets for some of their VIP patrons and celebrities in the hopes they will post photos of those mooncakes on social media -even though they are not usually available for sale to the general public.
Below are photos of some elaborately-designed mooncakes gift sets posted by Fashion bloggers Becky Li and Gogoboi.
Source: gogoboi
