Creating Desire for ‘Undesirables’ by subverting Means-End Chain

Purpose and meaning have always been fundamental to human and human institutions. In current times, “purpose” is actively researched by academic scholars and practiced by businesses. Purpose and values supersede product features or price in forming deeper connections with consumers by targeting emotional triggers. This paper, with its focus on alcohol beverage industry, studies how these brands target the innate need of humans to reach their terminal values or higher-order purpose in life to sell their products, consumption of which is associated with both health and social issues. Analysis of the selected alcohol beverage advertisements shows how marketers cleverly shift attention from the product attributes to consumers’ values, thus skipping the steps of Means-End chain. These personal values help in the attainment of one’s purpose (the reason for existence beyond oneself) ensuring satisfaction and contentment at an emotional level. In a category where brand preference is key, people’s motivation for selecting a particular brand they drink might be closely related to the underlying personal values.