A research study on ethics and brand loyalty in television commercials: A case study on Ankara

The purpose of this study is to investigate the concept of advertising ethics and the ethical factors in TV commercials. In particular, the extent to which certain unethical practices in TV commercials affect consumer brand loyalty is measured. The study also aims to determine the other factors that are conceived as unethical by consumers but not analyzed in this paper, find out which of the ethical factors are most influential on brand loyalty, and describe the expectations of consumers from advertising agencies and advertising firms.The analysis is based on a group of consumers who are 15-60 age, and reside in the districts of Ankara. The sample size required for the analysis is calculated to be at least 1836 for a confidence level of %99 and an error margin of ±%3. Therefore, the sample size is determined as 2000 individuals, and 1895 of the surveys are analyzed. The data of the analysis is extracted from these surveys. The empirical part of this thesis follows Hayman, Tansey and Clark (1994); a pre-survey analysis is conducted to determine the advertising ethics factors to be used in the survey questions, and constitute the independent variables of the analysis. Five of these advertising ethics factors are chosen by consumers to be included in the analysis.The results of the analyses and hypothesis testing demonstrate the importance of ethics concept for consumers, and the adverse effect of unethical factors on consumer brand loyalty. In addition, the importance given to ethical factors in advertising, the degree to which unethical factors are weighted, and the belief that commercials are ethical are found to vary significantly depending on demographic factors.