THE EFFECT OF GREEN ADVERTISING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS ON CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

Purpose: This article aims to examine the effect of green advertising and environmental ethics perceptions on consumer purchasing behavior. Methodology: In the method of the research, correlation and regression analyzes were performed with the data of 342 participants using the SPSS 26 program. Research Limitation/implication: Due to the Covid-19 virus, 342 participants were surveyed in full. Not reaching all Malatya people is a limitation. Findings: Green advertising affects consumer purchasing behavior positively and significantly, the definition of environmental ethics affects consumer purchasing behavior positively and significantly, measures to be taken for environmental ethics affect consumer purchasing behavior positively and significantly, and green advertising affects all sub-dimensions of environmental ethics perceptions. It has been determined that the dimensions of the study are positively and significantly affected. Contribution to knowledge: It is recommended that institutions and organizations that want to increase the environmental ethics perception level of consumers and increase their consumer purchasing behavior should give the necessary importance to green advertising.


INTRODUCTION
Mankind has been feeding on nature since the day it existed. This consumption causes several damages to nature in its activities. Environmental pollution is at the very beginning of these damages and our damage to nature is increasing. This situation now constitutes the main problem in the global world and also keeps people busy. In this way, it is realized how important environmental problems are and it is understood that they concern all people (Tunç, 2016). There are more factors affecting the environment and causing problems than before. However, situations that harm nature have been identified and reported to people by various means by experts on this subject (Dikicigil, 2018).
Advertising is a way of communication between the buyer and the seller of a product. Decontamination is the way of product communication. Several ads are aimed directly at the consumer, and some are aimed at institutions or organizations that are intermediaries. It can be called a strategy of attracting those who are aimed at consumers. The purpose here is to make people want to buy products or products that they see advertised. Ads for organizations or brokerage firms or personal salespeople promotions and applications are called a push strategy. The aim here is to encourage intermediaries to sell the product (Baydaş & Yaşar, 2019).
Green advertising is one of the techniques that people engaged in marketing activities used to create a perception of green products in the consciousness of buyers about their products. Green advertising also influences the personal attitudes and thoughts of consumers about advertising, as well as their friendly intentions towards the environment. People who have information about this issue think that green advertising has an important place in marketing. In addition, green advertising can be used with other applied marketing strategies to meet the necessary needs (Kao & Du, 2020).
Green marketing and advertising-related activities while continuing to assess the success they have been able to grow rapidly to cover these situations are not equipped with the tools and also consumers ' environmental attitudes, intentions, and behaviors do not have adequate tools to determine. It is quite difficult to understand or even predict the behavior of people towards the environment. Most people have several beliefs and concerns about the environment, but consumers' environmental attitudes are not the same (Haytko & Matulich, 2008). The research was conducted to determine the effect of green advertising and environmental ethics perceptions on consumer purchasing behavior. The current study is aimed to determine how green advertising and environmental ethics perceptions affect consumer purchasing behavior.
The main actor in the increase and occurrence of environmental problems is man, and the main reason is some consumption activities that he has shown. As a result of these consumption activities, there is a shortage in production. Along with the shortage, there are economic difficulties in human life, followed by several problems in his life. Institutions and organizations have been focusing on environmental issues since the 1980s. As the day goes on, the level of awareness of nature in humans has increased and thus some businesses have realized that environmental sensitivity can be a good Sunday (Topuz, 2016).

Consumer buying behavior
Consumption is the expenditure of resources and efforts that have a certain capacity to satisfy various desires or needs of individuals. Consumers, on the other hand, are people or persons who purchase or can purchase items that are the subject of marketing to meet their current wants, demands, and needs. The concept of a customer is people who purchase finished products or a certain service at certain periods or choose only a certain brand. Consumers are people who have received or are performing a consumption activity related to the needs of both their own and their family (Kendirli & Kaptan, 2020). Consumer behavior is an index of events related to decisions about who, how, where, and when to buy the situation that the consumer will buy after deciding between what he wants or needs, or whether he will perform the buying behavior (Durmaz et al., 2011).
Various changes are occurring in people's needs and perceptions day by day, and new ones are being added. This situation occurs within a system. The system demands that new needs arise every day. As part of the formation of needs, several changes occur in the social structure. With the change of social structures, the desires, and needs of the individual that he will consume also increase in this direction. The economic situation of societies began with agricultural activities and began to take shape in this direction together with industry.
Along with this change, economic activities have caused several changes in the social structure, for example in our consumption habits. Therefore, our understanding of consumption has changed. As a result, the integrity of all vital activities is focused on consumption (Guntay, 2020).
The attitude of consumers to buying is influenced by various factors. For this reason, superior to the competition by companies to reach consumers regarding the current attitude toward life processes of purchasing the product, the consumer profile to meet the requests and expectations related to the development of market conditions to achieve high efficiency, consumers regarding current attitudes toward life are required to observe the processes of purchasing the product. Sociological, demographic, and psychological factors are some of the factors that encourage consumers to buy products. Consumers may also show certain changes in their purchasing behavior depending on the differences in their products or services (Sarıtaş, 2018).

Green advertising
Institutions and organizations show their views and behaviors towards the environment in different ways. One of these methods is environmental or green advertising. Green advertising can be defined as advertising activities that include "environmentally friendly messages aiming to meet the demands and needs of people who care about the protection of the environment, the continuity of the environment and show their attention in that direction, which is the reason for their purchasing behavior". Green advertising has the framework of protecting nature and all living things in nature and living a healthy life. The basis of green advertising is to educate consumers about the environmental aspects of any product or service they have bought or will receive, to create awareness and a positive attitude towards environmentally friendly brands and companies, and to demand the need for green products (Altuğ Özhan, & Park, 2020).
Consumers also need green advertising to learn more about environmental products/services, institutions, and organizations, and to ensure their consumption habits in a way that causes no or minimal harm to the environment they live in. Due to such factors, green advertisements provide mutual benefit and value between consumers and institutions, and organizations. In this context, the attitude of protecting the environment, which is observed to increase in consumers today, has led institutions and organizations to act with an environmentalist attitude at all stages of marketing (Kükrer, 2012).
Companies are striving to seize the opportunity with strong communication methods that have attitudes towards greater environmental awareness. Many corporate marketers respond to this orientation by using "green advertising" or "eco-labeling", and in marketing, they claim that a product is made from environmentally friendly materials or is contained in environmentally friendly packaging. Companies make environmental statements in their advertisements in the hope of gaining an advantage over companies that they consider competitors and convincing consumers with these claims (Çavuşoğlu, 2021).

Perceptions of environmental ethics
Ethics is a limited provision validity that provides regularity to social life until the 1960s when environmental awareness began to form. However, with the more obvious emergence of environmental problems and the transformation of the environment and its problems into the topic of the world's conversation, we see that ethics has acquired a new dimension by including human actions towards nature. For this reason, environmental ethics has been born as a new branch of ethics that guides and shapes people's view of nature (Sönmez, 2018). Ethics prevents and limits individuals from doing what they need and want. Because taking part in moral behavior requires acting by understanding whether this behavior is positive or negative afterward. Also looking at the links between human and environmental ethics for environmental conditions, biotic and abiotic about what is good and what is bad, what is in human behavior towards the environment to make inquiries, and mostly for the better, turning bad situations that may be to refrain from recommends (Ergun & Çobanoğlu, 2012) Environmental ethics and the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, and in this relationship entails, in addition to the relationship between nature and environment significance within certain norms, regulating the ethics application and is one of the areas producing and evaluating solutions (Saka, 2016). Environmental ethics recognizes that ethical quality controls and should govern the behavior of individuals towards the normal world. Then, at this point, the hypothesis of ecological morality needs to clarify what these standards are, to whom and against what individuals have obligations, and to show why these obligations are defended. To be responsible for nature, might seem to imply a link between individuals those who are not just in nature, but in the same way, these issues of social, welfare, and philosophical perspectives towards others in a way affected the accuracy of the results from direct or indirect obligation includes (Yıldız & Çobanoğlu, 2017).
In summary, environmental dec is the systematic observation of ceremonial connections between people and the environment in which they are located. Environmental ethics believe that ceremonial principles should determine and regulate human behavior towards nature. Therefore, an environmental ethical theory should explain what these rules are, to whom and what responsibility people have, and why this responsibility is justified. Responsibility to nature Although it seems to be related only to the relationship with non-human beings in nature, it also includes a responsibility towards other people who are social, health-conscious, and philosophically sensitive to these issues and who are directly or indirectly affected by the consequences (Iğci & Çobanoğlu, 2019).

Consumer Buying Behavior and Green Advertising
When buying a product or service for the consumer, there are two types of information that affect this situation: internal and external. Internal information is information obtained from personal experiences, while external information is expressed as stimuli from the external environment (Kartal & Tatlı, 2020). The continuation of the production process depends on the state of sale of the goods or services produced. In this case, the products to be sold should be promoted in such a way as to make a positive impression on the public. On the other hand, ads are one of the most important tools that fulfill this important task (Zhang et al., 2020;Catenazzo & Paulssen, 2020;Blichfeldt & Faullant, 2021).
Green advertising: green products, nature, views, and attitudes adopted by the institution or organization are the most effective and easiest method of raising the awareness of consumers. It is one of the activities to promote products and services to reduce non-environmentally friendly situations (Yılan, 2020). Consumers' concerns about the environment and their attitudes about the continuity of resources affect their purchase intentions. Companies that need to develop new and different methods to inform consumers about their opinions about themselves and their environmental sensitivities have started to pay more attention to green advertising practices (Ulusu & Köksal, 2012).
Hypothesis 1: Green advertising, positively and significantly affects consumer purchasing behavior.

Perceptions of Consumer Purchasing Behavior and Environmental Ethics
Environmental activities for consumers have been called an "awakening period" in the 1960s, an "action phase" in the 1970s, a "time to be affordable" in the 1980s, and a "force in the market" in the 1990s. Recently, consumers have realized that there is an end to natural resources, and there are facts that require more attention than previously assumed. The awareness levels of consumers have made progress thanks to the increasing news in the media about environmental problems, the increasing perception of environmental problems, and the activities brought about by legal regulations (Aracıoğlu & Tatlıdil, 2009).
Eco-friendly consumers money, time, and energy and to reduce your current expenses to identify the needs and behavior of the product that you would get when purchasing the main labeling and pay attention to the content and products without harming the environment in addition to the used materials which can be recycled prefer to wrap them (Şahin et al., 2015).
A consumer who cares about the environment and acts sensitively about its importance is a consumer who considers the social consequences of his or her family's private consumption or tries to use his or her consumption power to support social change. As customers become aware of the negative effects of environmental problems, they are more demanding of the products of institutions or organizations that use practices that do not harm the environment (Çelik et al., 2019).

Perceptions of Green Advertising and Environmental Ethics
Green Advertising is one of the communication factors made by marketers to inform about products that do not harm the environment or cause little harm, to raise public awareness, and support the purchase in this direction. These advertisements include suggestions and contributions on how all the activities of the institution or organization related to the environment are developing and can develop, or information on how environmental destruction should be reduced (Koçer & Delice, 2016).
Due to the increase in environmental awareness and the increase in green marketing activities, the more environmentally conscious consumers demand green products, and the increasing trends in this direction, the companies are turning to green products and they also pay attention to advertising, green content and green advertising activities for their products (Guntay, 2020).

Sampling
This study was conducted on citizens living in the provincial center of Malatya. There is no special audience to study the impact of green advertising and environmental ethics perceptions on consumer purchasing behavior. In other words, it applies to all individuals who have literacy and reading comprehension skills. An easy sampling method was used to answer the research questionnaires. Bilateral relations have been effective in answering research questionnaires. The questionnaire forms were completed by the participants voluntarily. There are a total of 342 fully completed forms. The data obtained were used by using the SPSS 26 program and factor, reliability, correlation, and regression analyses were used. The demographic characteristics of the participants are shown in Table 1 and above 51 %14.6 (n=50) , Education ; Elementary School 0.6 percent (n=2) High School %12.6 (n=43) associate degree %5.8 (N=20) of the license, 74% (N=253) graduate %7 (N=24), according to the monthly income; and six TL 2825 %27.8 (n=95) 2826-3500 of £ 18.1% (n=62) 3501 TL and %54.1 (n=185) has been identified as. In the study, the relationships between the demographic characteristics of the participants and consumer purchasing behavior, perceptions of green advertising, and environmental ethics were not evaluated.

Measure
In the questionnaire, there are questions about three dimensions: green advertising, consumer purchasing behavior, and environmental ethics awareness. The questions in the scale were graded on a fivepoint Likert scale (Strongly Disagree -Disagree -Undecided -Agree -Strongly Agree). Green advertising and consumer purchasing behavior scale (Djurdjevac, 2019), Environmental ethics awareness scale (Özer, 2015;Dikicigil, 2018) were used. There are 11 questions on green advertising, 10 questions on consumer purchasing behavior, and 4 dimensions in the environmental ethics awareness scale. These are the definition of environmental ethics, 7 questions, measures to be taken for environmental ethics, 8 questions, the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics, 5 questions, and 3 questions about the purpose of environmental ethics.

Factor and Reliability analyses
There are two statistical measures used to evaluate the suitability of the data for factor analysis. These are the KMO coefficient and the Bartlett sphericity test. The KMO coefficient expresses the suitability of the sample size for factor analysis. For the sample size to be sufficient, the KMO value must be at least .60 and above; The Barlett test should also be significant (p<.05) (Katrancı & Temel, 2018). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha); ≥0.9 Excellent, 0.7≤α<0.9 Good, 0.6≤α<0.7 Acceptable, 0.5≤α<0.6 Poor, α<0.5 Unacceptable Also 0.81<α<1.00 Scale has high reliability, 0.61<α<0.80 Scale has medium reliability, If it is between 0.41<α<0.60, the scale has low reliability, and 0.00<α<0.40 means that the scale is not reliable (Kılıç, 2016). Exploratory factor analyzes were carried out using the SPSS 26 program to see if each question in the questionnaire was separated into related factors as expected. Factor analysis was performed with the Principal Component Analyses method, rotation was performed with the Varimax method. As seen in Table 2, the KMO value of 0.921 indicates that the sample is sufficient for factor analysis. The fact that the BKT result (Sig. = 0.000) in the same table is significant (p < .05) means that the matrix with the relationships between the variables is significant for factor analysis and factor analysis can be performed. According to the result in Table 2; The reliability coefficient (α) of the green advertising scale is .620. A value in the range of 0.6≤α<0.7 means that the scale is acceptable if it is in the range of 0.61<α<0.80, the scale has medium reliability, and the reliability coefficient (α) of the consumer purchasing scale is .878. A value range of 0.7≤α<0.9 indicates that our scale is good and that the scale is in the range of 0.81<α<1.00 value, it is seen that the scale has high reliability, and the sub-dimensions of environmental ethics perceptions are generally high and have good reliability.

Correlation Analysis
Green advertising, consumer buying behavior, and the sub-dimensions of environmental ethics perceptions the relationships between the decibels were investigated by multiple correlation analyses. The results of the analysis are presented in Table 3. According to Table 3, there is a significant and positive relationship between Green advertising and consumer purchasing behavior (r (342) = .424, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between green advertising and the definition of environmental ethics (r (342) = .341, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between green advertising and measures to be taken for environmental ethics (r (342) = .342, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between green advertising and the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics (r (342) = .406, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between green advertising and the purpose of environmental ethics (r (342) = .287, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between the definition of environmental ethics and consumer purchasing behavior (r (342) = .545, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between the measures to be taken for environmental ethics and consumer purchasing behavior (r (342) = .549, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics and consumer purchasing behavior (r (342) = .485, p < .01). There is a significant and positive relationship between the purpose of environmental ethics and consumer purchasing behavior (r (342) = .439, p < .01). According to these results, as green advertising increases, consumer purchasing behavior increases. As green advertising increases, perceptions of environmental ethics increase, and finally, as environmental ethics perceptions increase, consumer purchasing behavior increases.

Regression Analysis
Consumer purchasing behavior levels: Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine how much green advertising and environmental ethics perceptions were determined. These results are included in Table 4. The regression equation of Table 4: Consumer purchasing behavior = 0.217+0.321 (green advertising) + 0.270 (definition of environmental ethics) + 0.265 (measures to be taken for environmental ethics) + 0.086 (reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics) -0.051 (purpose of environmental ethics) is in the form. The analysis results in Table 4 are statistically significant [F (5,336) = 43.436, p< .01]. The adjusted R2 value is .38. This value shows us that the 38% variance in consumer purchasing levels is explained by the definition of environmental ethics, the measures to be taken for environmental ethics, the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics, and the purpose of environmental ethics. However, when we look at the Beta coefficients in Table 4, if all independent variables are included in the regression model, the consumer buying behavior; green advertising (β= .23, p <.01), the definition of environmental ethics (β=25, p <.01), and environmental ethics measures (β=.24, p <.01) have significant contributions. Among the other independent variables, the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics (β= .08, p >.05) and the purpose of environmental ethics (β= -.05, p >.05) have no significant contribution. A simple regression analysis was conducted to examine how green advertising determined environmental ethics perception levels. These results are in Table 5, Table 6, Table 7, and Table 8. As shown in Table 5, a regression analysis was used to determine how much green advertising determines the definition of environmental ethics. The analysis results are statistically significant [F (1.340) = 44,732, p < .01]. His equation for the simple linear relationship between variables is the definition of environmental ethics = 2.919 + 0.449 (green advertisement). The corrected R2 value in the analysis results is 0.11. Accordingly, it is seen that 11% of the variance of the definition of environmental ethics depends on green advertising. As shown in Table 6, a regression analysis was used to determine how much green advertising determines the measures to be taken for environmental ethics. The analysis results are statistically significant [F (1,340) = 45,052, p <.01]. His equation for the simple linear relationship between the variables is measured to be taken for environmental ethics = 2.764 + 0.443 (green advertisement). The corrected R2 value in the analysis results is 0.11. According to this, it is seen that an 11% variance of the measures to be taken for environmental ethics depends on green advertising. As shown in Table 7, a regression analysis was used to determine how much green advertising determined the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics. The analysis results are statistically significant [F (1,340) = 67,137, p <.01]. The equation for the simple linear relationship between the variables is the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics = 2,434 + 0.534 (green advertisement). The corrected R2 value in the analysis results is 0.16. Accordingly, it is seen that the 16% variance of the reasons for the emergence of environmental ethics is due to green advertising. In Table 8, a regression analysis was used to determine how much green advertising determines the purpose of environmental ethics. The analysis results are statistically significant [F (1,340) = 30,584, p <.01]. The equation for the simple linear relationship between the variables is the objective of environmental ethics = 3.158 + 0.412 (green advertisement). The corrected R2 value in the analysis results is 0.08. According to this, it is seen that 08% of the variance of the purpose of environmental ethics depends on green advertising.
According to the results of the analysis, H1, H2 (a, b), and H3 (a, b, c, d) were accepted.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Advertising is not only done to make people buy something, but also to raise people's awareness about certain issues and increase their perceptions. In this study, the effect of green advertising and environmental ethics perceptions on consumer purchasing behavior was examined. As a result of this article, green advertising affects consumer purchasing behavior positively and significantly, the definition of environmental ethics affects consumer purchasing behavior positively and significantly, measures to be taken for environmental ethics affect consumer purchasing behavior positively and significantly, and green advertising affects all subdimensions of environmental ethics perceptions. It has been determined that the dimensions of the study are positively and significantly affected. In line with these results, it is thought that companies should give due importance to green advertising, in this direction, it is thought that their sales will increase, and it is thought that the perceived level of consumers towards the environment will increase.
Consumers do the necessary research before purchasing any product. One of the fastest and easiest ways to do this research is through advertisements. Through advertisements, the product meets the consumer visually or audibly. With green advertising, the product both communicates with the consumer and increases the level of perception of the consumer towards the environment.
A limitation of the study is that 342 participants filled in completely. The main reason for this limitation is that people were hesitant to fill out the questionnaires because they were afraid of the risk of transmission of the Covid-19 virus. According to the data in the research, the participants give importance to the environment. With the increase in green advertisements, environmental ethics perceptions will also increase. Our hypotheses were confirmed according to the answers given by the participants. As a research proposal to other researchers, they evaluate the perceptions of green advertising and environmental ethics in consumer purchasing behavior as institutions and organizations.