ces your company's position within the community, but it also detracts from the competition because customers may then view your competitors as outsiders that take money away from the local community. There are many variations of sponsorship programs, and in many cases these programs have proven to be an effective loyalty building technique. Clubs and Chat Rooms Another approach, similar to sponsorship, is when a company actually takes the initiative to start a special interest group or forum that allows people to come together and share a common interest. Special interest clubs or forums serve a similar function as sponsorship, but it is a much stronger and pro-active approach. Some of the more interesting club approaches include a "Cat Fanciers Club" created by a cat food company and the "Mother's Mutual Support Group," organized by a baby food company. A forum that relates directly to your product is ideal, but it is certainly not critical. Many companies sponsor clubs for teenagers, single persons, married persons, and hobby enthusiasts of all kinds. In an interesting modern variation of this special interest approach, many companies are now creating special interest chat rooms on the Internet. Whatever the method or medium, all of these approaches share the same strategy. The objective is to support and enable people's social interaction, while at the same time getting them to associate these interactions with the company that sponsors the function or group. Points and Awards Programs Another loyalty approach that has been popular for many years is the use of incentive offerings such as points and awards to build customer loyalty. Long ago we referred to these offerings as the "green stamp programs." Before the days of computers and fancy marketing campaigns, a company called S&H came up with an interesting concept for helping companies build customer loyalty. S&H's green stamps concept created an environment that enticed customers to return to particular vendors. S&H created special green stamps that they s