"how harman amplifies e-commerce success: a case study" - harman international, digital...


Amplifying E-commerce Success

Harman International


About Harman


About HarmanHouse of Brands


About HarmanOver 60 years of industry groundbreaking “firsts”

1928 World’s first talking movie features Lansing’s HD loudspeakers

1937 MGM-Lansing sound system wins first of two Academy Awards

1949 Crown introduces first open reel tape recorder with built-in power amp

1948 First ever in-car radio

1984 JBL in Lincoln Town Car Premiers as First OEM Branded Car Audio System

1997First car radio/CD/nav. system

1999HK Soundsticks debut at MOMA

/ 1958 Harman Kardon releases the world’s first stereo receiver

1975 Becker launches first car cassette radio

1969 JBL powersfirst of three Woodstocks

1970’s JBL co-develops the Wall Of Sound for the Grateful Dead

1971 DBX brings realism of live performance to recorded music

1991 AKG binaural products used on Mir Space Station

1983 George Lucas selects JBL to develop the first THX licensed theater audio system

1983 Crown taps JBL to develop first THX licensed system

1956

Sidney Harman buys out Bernard Kardon and creates Harman International

1953 AKG invents world’s first dynamic cardiod microphone

1953 Harman Kardon introduces first FM tuner

1987Martin lights up the dance floor with disco lights and fog machines

1989 Digitech Whammy first foot-controlled pitch shifting guitar pedal

2002 Three JBL engineers receive Academy Awards

2014 HARMAN wins third GRAMMY

2004 Harman enables first Bluetooth wireless connectivity in the car

2004 JBL one of first to release audio docks for iPod.

2012 JBL introduces Flip


About Harman

Infotainment (54% of revenue)

Navigation, Multimedia, Connectivity, Safety & Security solutions and services.

Lifestyle (28% of revenue)

Premium Branded Audio products for use at home, in the car and on the go.

Three Corporate Divisions

Professional (18% of revenue)

Audio, Lighting, Video Switching and Control systems for the installation, portable PA, touring, broadcast and cinema markets.


About HarmanMost Respected VenuesYankee Stadium NATO Headquarters Beijing National Stadium

Grand Mosque at Mecca Radio City Music Hall Walt Disney Concert Hall


About HarmanThree Corporate Divisions

Infotainment (54% of revenue)

Navigation, Multimedia, Connectivity, Safety & Security solutions and services.

Lifestyle (28% of revenue)

Premium Branded Audio products for use at home, in the car and on the go.

Professional (18% of revenue)

Audio, Lighting, Video Switching and Control systems for the installation, portable PA, touring, broadcast and cinema markets.


About HarmanMost Admired Vehicles


E-commerce History


ABOUT HARMAN E-COMMERCEHistory

B2C (and especially ecommerce) were never a large part of the Harman businessFew dedicated e-commerce employeesNo global ecommerce leadership

– Limited knowledge or resource sharing across regions

Properties were regionally built and maintained– Often by the sales team– Built with limited resources– Occasionally hosted and/or maintained by 3rd parties


About E-commerceInherited E-commerce Infrastructure

~10 platforms– None of which is fast enough– Maintained by different dev groups– Some hosted by 3rd parties– Inconsistent site design, features, and tracking

Myriad feeds for various purposes Different tracking capabilities

– Known and unknown tags throughout

Off-brand sites in some cases Region-specific payment collection solutions Hard-coded tracking


Objective


Objective

Build a more robust and scalable online B2C solution by expanding investing in e-commerce.

Leverage online vehicles to drive revenue and brand awareness.


Objective

Digital Team

Stakeholders– Sales– Marketing

Tasked with:– Building a best-in-class e-commerce

practice across all markets 2 years into a ~4 year plan

– Doubling revenue each year– Increasing Harman brand awareness

among consumers

Analytics Manager Stakeholders

– Marketing– IT

Tasked with:– Standardize tracking and reporting– Automate re-occurring reporting– BI warehouse– Personalization– Site optimization– Expedite marketing campaign time to

market

New Global Team


Objective

Phase 1 (Standardization)

Global On-Brand Site Design Global Platform Global Payment Consistent Tracking Speed-up Marketing Campaigns Consistent Site Features

Phase 2 (Enhancement and Expansion)

Personalization Testing SEO Optimization BI Warehouse BRIC Expansion

E-commerce Roadmap

Phase 1 Phase 2

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4


Challenge and Solution


Challenge

Site Performance

Tags slowing down site load

Unknown legacy tags

Messy code from in-page tags

Limited IT Resources

2-4 week sprints Time spent

communicating and documenting requirements

Limited code sharing across tags and sites and no sharing across platform

Removing tags is another ticket

Different IT teams requires duplicate communication and different implementations.

Slow Time to Market

Marketing campaigns have to wait for tracking to be added

Documentation

Auditing tags and documenting implementation in Word documents

Scale

4 Sites 16 tags

– Multiple instances of many (50+ MediaMind tags)


Solution

1. Move all tags into a tag management system


Solution


2. Single container across all sites


Solution


2. Single container across all sites3. Robust data layer to eliminate (or at

least reduce) the need for code changes to launch new tags

• Virtually every product touch-point

• All product meta-data• Entire checkout process• Checkout sequencing• User group & test segment

• Brand/category affinity• Hierarchical page names• Custom page elements• More


SolutionVendor Requirements

Client-side tracking Compatible with virtually all tags Asynchronous tag loading Alternate solutions for data layer variables Virtually no lag in launching tags User-friendly QA tools Stable company Solid success record and references


SolutionVendor Evaluation

Tealium iQ

Great references Intuitive interface Corporate leadership

Ensighten

Ok references, but not stellar

Appeared to be less user-friendly than Tealium

Tagman (now part of Ensighten)

Appeared to lack the resources to keep up with competition

Terrible references

Google Tag Manager

Only compatible with Google tags and a few others


Results


SolutionTracking

Site Performance


Unknown legacy tags








Slow Time to Market


Documentation


Scale

4 Sites 16 tags

– Multiple instances of many (50+ Mediamind tags)

• No in-page tags• Asynchronous tags


SolutionTracking

Site Performance


Unknown legacy tags








Slow Time to Market


Documentation


Scale

4 Sites 16 tags


• Adding tags no longer dependent upon IT

• IT freed-up to work on enhancements

• ROI within ~4 months

• One-time setup for each tag regardless of the number of sites using it

• Tags removed in 5 minutes


SolutionTracking

Site Performance


Unknown legacy tags








Slow Time to Market


Documentation


Scale

4 Sites 16 tags


• Simple tags live in 15 minutes

• Most complex new tag was live in a couple hours

• Campaign launch time is no longer restricted by tracking


SolutionTracking

Site Performance


Unknown legacy tags








Slow Time to Market


Documentation


Scale

4 Sites 16 tags


• A list of all tags easily accessible


SolutionTracking

Site Performance


Unknown legacy tags








Slow Time to Market


Documentation


Scale

4 Sites 16 tags


• Single container• No duplicate tags

• MediaMind tags solved via an extension


Future Plans


Future Plans

Complete platform consolidation Global payment provider Complete BRIC expansion Launch MVT program Launch personalization program BI warehouse (exploring Tealium AudienceStream as part of this

project)


Key Takeaways


Key Takeaways

1. Take your time planning the implementation2. Design a tag-agnostic, scalable data layer3. Avoid redundancies4. Utilize naming conventions and labels5. Experiment with extensions (ON STAGING)6. Add the Tealium EventStream tag to your profile(s) for QA


Thank [email protected]

Yes, sadly I have a 2 in my email address

"how harman amplifies e-commerce success: a case study" - harman international, digital...

Retail

car radio1984 jbl

grammy2004 harman

jbl engineers

car2004 jbl

car cassette radio1969

harman international1953

academy awards2014 harman

harman businessfew dedicated