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Chuck Book embraces his love of local life as President of Hamilton Gregory Marketing Communications where he works along with partners Barry Vasisko and Mike Morgan. Their company, located at 217 West Orange Street in Lancaster, serves clientele either on a project-by-project or full service basis. Between their customer service of old and their cutting edge creativity, they expertly exercise the balance between modern and classic.

As their website states: “…Hamilton Gregory undertakes work for clients who understand the importance of smart communications to their brand’s profitability and durability. We believe advertising is a long-term investment, not a quick-to-ax cost, and forge relationships with similarly minded marketers.”

Chuck Book highlights what makes Hamilton Gregory unique: “We get involved with a myriad of clients… from healthcare, to manufacturing, to all sorts of service agencies,” he states. “I think the thing that differentiates us is that even though we think and operate as an agency, we are a per-project shop. We’re small. That has a lot of value for our clients because we respond quickly. We keep costs in line.”

In order to manage their smaller-sized shop, the creative trio constantly thinks and works locally.

“We believe in keeping things in our own backyard. We outsource to local and south central Pennsylvania,” said Book. “Philosophically, it’s great to keep working with people who are local… but from a business standpoint it makes good sense, too. If we need to go on a press check or if our clients need to come out, we can just go right in our own backyard.”

Many of Hamilton Gregory’s long-standing client relationships are, in fact, local, though some come from out of county, and Book takes great pride in having maintained these constant customers. He and his partners believe that this is a result of creative and effective work and trust developed over time through attention to detail and lots of good service, as well as the practice of repeatedly exceeding their client’s expectations with projects and assignments.

“Engle-Hambright & Davies Inc. has been a loyal client of ours for 18 years, and we've been producing work for New Holland Agriculture A Division of CNH Global, LLC for over 20 years. In York, Barley Autumn House Senior Living Communities is a 19-year client,” Book proudly shared.

Being stationed locally also keeps Book, Vasisko and Morgan on their toes. The local competition forces them to maintain sharp skills and to consistently focus on operating their business in a timely manner.

“There’s a huge talent pool in Lancaster,” compliments Book.

“Our town is rich in talent when it comes to marketing communications and design firms…from ad agencies, to one-man communication firms, to the County's many freelance writers and artists.”

Hamilton Gregory works hard to study their completion and stay on top, and this means staying up to date on the latest business practices. The company has evolved quite a bit over the past 20 years. Initially, business was run by cold calling and traveling door-to-door. These days, with their well-earned good reputation, they rarely need to reach out for clients. Happy customers have consistently helped them with some excellent word-of-mouth advertising.

Hamilton Gregory also finds it important to stay active on social media, as they firmly believe it is the way of the future. The Internet in general has unlocked previously unattainable opportunities for their small company. Book and his partners intelligently use it as a ‘cheat sheet’ of sorts. If they get word of a fresh, cutting-edge concept, they can educate themselves quickly and effectively with Google. Social media helps to keep them modern and current, which is especially important in the advertising market.

In today’s world, everything—from college seminars to origami tutorials—is available online. Hamilton Gregory Advertising has all sorts of technology at their fingertips. The team realizes that their clients don’t have time to leaf through endless material and become educated on the latest and greatest concepts, and that’s where they come in. Once the information is collected and condensed for the customer, Hamilton Gregory turns off the technology and does things the old-fashioned way; they meet their clientele in-person to build a quality rapport and learn the most effective ways to meet their needs and address their problems.

“We’re big on local relationships. We believe that in order to have a solid relationship with our clients, we need to understand their pain and put ourselves in their position. I think we do a pretty good job of it. It’s near and dear to our hearts, and it’s second to creating a high-quality project that’s within their budget,” said Book.

“Locally we find that people are reaching out to their neighbors and people around the corner,” said Book. “It’s important that they present an image that is socially conscious. That’s important here. It helps them put their best foot forward in a philosophical and image standpoint. They want to make sure that their neighborhood knows that they’re a good company with which to do business.”

Making neighborhood businesses look good is the easy part for Book. The hardest is figuring out how to properly balance his time to create optimum production, profitability, and sales for new business development. Because of the smaller size of their company, when Hamilton Gregory becomes busy meeting deadlines for new projects, Book cannot be out selling, working the phone, or socially networking online or in his Chamber gatherings. Clients who contact him often have pressing needs and short timelines, and Book makes sure that meeting those needs remains his first priority. It is this dedication to clientele that helps foster their deep, long-term customer relationships.

Book and his team deepen their developed relationships locally by celebrating Lancaster’s accomplishments. They help with PR campaigns—like fun runs and charity events—which give back to the community. Neighbors helping neighbors; it’s another timeless principle that Book and his team strive to practice.

During their more than two decades in business, Hamilton Gregory has worked to give back to the community in a number of ways. Despite their limited time and resources, they continually find ways to make a big impact. They have supported local hospitals as well as the United Way through in-kind contributions, and have also served on the board of the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival. In the past they have served on committees for The Lancaster Chamber, and have supported the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s lock-up program. Annually, they contribute to a select number of local community and civic organizations and are very involved with their respective churches—both as on-site volunteers and as design and communications tool providers.

“I think our favorite way of giving back is leveraging our individual time and talents for the greater good,” said Book.

Lancaster County’s local community has certainly benefitted from Hamilton Gregory Marketing Communications and their dedication to social support. Book and his team are able to effectively stay well-versed on brand new business technologies while keeping one foot firmly rooted in the classic, customer-focused principles of the past. The fact that they are so adroit at walking this line has earned them a large amount of reverence and a great reputation. That means a lot in Lancaster’s advertising market; and it is this balance that has happy customers returning and recommending Book’s company again and again.

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