The members of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America (MBCA) are long-time enthusiasts of the best known premium automobile in the world... And their site, both in design and content, needed to represent that history, quality and pride of both the brand and the club.
Through an extensive branding study conducted by a third party, the MBCA embarked on a long-term effort to increase the visibility of the club and quality of its branding in order to expand its membership to a broader audience. Central to that marketing initiative was a new web site that emphasized online social interaction to a new generation of Mercedes-Benz owners.
Monarch Digital designed and developed an extensive web site and web application for a variety of audiences served by the club:
Visitors: Through a compelling design and compelling content, visitors find the attractive site a portal to a wide range of online information and personal contacts with existing club membership. Visitors can quickly create a guest account to participate in the forums without being a member of the club.
New Members: The new web site makes it easy to quickly join the club to fully participate in the community. The site demonstrates the value of membership through a wide variety of member benefits, testimonials and valuable online information about all makes and models of Mercedes-Benz.
Existing Members: Current club members can log in to submit local and national news articles, publicize events, read the award-winning Star Magazine online, place free online classified ads and get access to exclusive club resources. With the new site, the club can more easily stay in touch with members, members can dynamically update their membership profile online and they can easily renew their membership 24/7.
Star Magazine: For many members, the Star Magazine is the most important benefit of membership. The Star Magazine is the definitive source of news and events surrounding the Mercedes-Benz brand in the US and internationally. The MBCA web site brings the valuable content from the magazine online in several ways. Directly in the website, the pages of the Star Magazine come alive, published in an attractive web format. On each Star Magazine page, members and visitors alike can browse an interactive edition of the magazine provided by their publisher. Members receive complete access to the entire magazine while visitors receive selected feature articles.
Membership: Until Monarch developed the new MBCA site, the club maintained its member records on a customized Filemaker database on their local area network. Only National Business Office (NBO) staff onsite could update member information. Monarch converted the entire membership database into an online membership database, allowing members to update their own member profile information, manage their membership and have a single login for all club information.
Forum Community: For years, the club had a forum completely separate from the MBCA web site. To bring the community together on a single site, Monarch imported the MBCA vBulletin forum and merged the membership of the MBCA and the forums into a single login.
Local Sections. The 80+ local sections are the backbone of the club, organizing engaging events and providing one-on-one fellowship with other Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts. When a new member joins the club, the site automatically assigns the new member into the appropriate section based upon their zip code. Local section members can post their events and news articles for the entire membership and anyone visiting the site. Each section is featured on the national MBCA site and all officers can be contacted by visitors to learn more about that section.
Member to Member Communications: Another benefit of membership is the ability to directly contact other members. Individual members can either make their profile information visible or blocked from other members. In any case, members can contact other members through the web site without any emails being disclosed.
Technical Information: A huge benefit of the club is the availability of specific technical information about all aspects of the Mercedes-Benz product line. The forum continues to be a valuable resource, but the new site provides direct access to technical experts along with the ability to submit technical questions in a more structured manner in the Tech Talk section.
Visibility: Since all of the valuable Mercedes-Benz information from the club is now consolidated in a single web site, visitors are immediately introduced to the club when they happen upon the site while searching the web.
Club Operations: Unlike the past, National Business Office personnel are not consumed with membership updates on a local database. Individual members can update their member information and renew online. The NBO uses various features of the new site to distribute information to section leadership, provide election information to members and communicate with leadership across the US and Canada.
Marketing: In the past, new members came almost exclusively from face-to-face invitations from current members. The club did not want to lose any of that personal feel online. When a new member joins, the club stays in touch by email, giving additional ways to benefit from club membership. Existing members quickly learn of new events, programs, raffles and other opportunities.
