Can store design improve differentiation in the mind of the customer?

This book describes the importance of shop layout and design, including exterior design, for the differentiation power of a company. As differentiation happens in the consumer's mind, consumer perception and perceptual mapping will be discussed. Literature discussing shop layout and design, exterior design, differentiation, consumer perception and perceptual mapping will be analyzed and for this paper relevant findings will be stated and applied. The second part of this research will be to find an existing correlation between the change of a store layout and its design and a change in differentiation of a specific OMV-Viva shop, by using archival data from OMV Refining & Marketing. This examination will show if practical changes of store layout and design can change the differentiation power of a fuel station shop. For this purpose additionally the OMV-Viva filling stations' current differentiation strategy will be analyzed and information, significant to this paper, will be connected to the research. In the last part recommendations concerning differentiation by shop layout and design will be made, solely based on the finding of the research.