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	<title>Living Organism</title>
	<link>http://www.livingorganism.net</link>
	<description>Essential nutrients for branding and public relations</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:17:10 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Vitamin’s 2007 Recap</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As we look forward to a promising year in 2008, we reflect on the most memorable and rewarding moments of the past year. It was a year filled with new relationships, tremendous media buzz, and flourishing growth. Vitamin sustained its mission to provide the Cure for the Common Brand by offering strategic, identity, print, interactive and PR services in-house, on a boutique level, and by being the only firm in the mid-Atlantic to do so using a best practices approach. We also became fast friends with many firms in the built industry; our name recognition increased by 30% with considerable PR exposure; we formally celebrated our new studio with a "house party"; and each month we provided charitable services to help non-profits gain awareness for their respective causes.

The details of our achievements were rewarding, encouraging, and meaningful not only to Vitamin and to our clients, but to our community…]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2007/12/31/vitamin%e2%80%99s-2007-re-cap/</link>
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		<title>Vitamin, A First-to-Market Boutique</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Cure for the Common Brand Defined
Vitamin is the first design and marketing boutique in the Mid-Atlantic offering integrated marketing communications programs through the creation of identity, print, interactive and public relations campaigns. Most importantly, we are the only boutique following a best practices approach to process within each discipline. This approach results in service offerings that are equally balanced in terms of our firm’s strength within each discipline). Our boutique structure and strict approach to process enables us to create client deliverables that are higher impact, more sales focused and more message driven. This is the broad definition of our Cure for the Common Brand tagline.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2007/11/29/vitamin-a-first-to-market-boutique/</link>
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		<title>IPHONE - CONSUMERS NOW IN PALM DRIVER SEAT</title>
		<description><![CDATA[OK, so the iPhone is launched. Businesses are talking. Consumers are buzzing. BlackBerry, Motorola and Treo execs / users seem ticked or scared or curious or all of the above.  Who really knows? The point is, people are talking and businesses doubt or do not fully realize the drastic changes in palm device advancement that the iPhone brings with it.

After seeing the iPhone work reliably when a couple of friends gave us demos, Vitamin immediately bought the phones for our entire company. Our team deserved it. They work hard, and this past quarter was particularly stellar. We believe in recognizing our team for their hard work and commitment. Not to mention, these phones are pretty sick. In order to stay with the times, we needed them.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2007/07/23/iphone-consumers-now-in-palm-driver-seat/</link>
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		<title>WEB 2.0? HUMBUG. IT’S JUST THE INTERNET.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was recently asked to answer an intriguing question for a media interview. The question struck me in such a way that it warranted a rather opinionated response. I thought the topic, and my response, would make a good Blog entry.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2007/07/17/web-20-humbug-it%e2%80%99s-just-the-internet/</link>
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		<title>iPHONE MANIA, PR DELIGHT</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We did something a little unconventional, but very much in the spirit of Vitamin's corporate culture. Just over a week ago, we surprised our employees with Apple iPhones.

Needless to say, they were thrilled to find iPhones hidden away in their filing cabinet doors. They really deserved the reward as a result of their stellar performance during the first two quarters of this year.

Our action was a rewarding employee bonus, and it turned out to be a tremendous PR prize for our design and marketing firm. While Vitamin is well-known in Maryland (our headquarters is in Baltimore) and we work with clients nationally, the iPhone news was the most far reaching and buzz worthy we have experienced to date. We garnered more than 10 million media impressions – and that’s a conservative estimate. 

Wanna know how? Read on…]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2007/07/16/iphone-mania-pr-delight/</link>
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		<title>ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What a crying shame. As everyone already knows, Eisner Communications, one of Baltimore City's largest and oldest ad agencies, abruptly folded over night. I held back from writing about this topic for so long specifically because it hits so close to home. Knee jerk reactions aside, it's time to get down.

I am constantly evangelizing an employer's responsibility to his or her team. This responsibility encompasses far more than fair wages and good benefits; compensation packages are only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, what's even more important are the qualities – honesty, morality, caring and compassion – that are seemingly slipping and fading quickly from corporate America.

True, the bottom line is key; but what good are revenues, growth and perceived esteem if you compromise good natured humanism?]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2007/02/13/another-one-bites-the-dust/</link>
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		<title>Online Pressrooms: Surprising Benefits</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Your 3 p.m. deadline is looming, your boss is becoming intolerably demanding, and you’re frantically searching the web for research to complete your report. Imagine the relief when you stumble upon the ultimate resource. It’s overflowing with goodies relating to the topic you’re covering – statistics, quotes, articles, pictures, graphs, and the like are abound. With only minutes to spare you compile the necessary details, complete the report, and scurry the final piece over to your boss. Ahh, tranquility. Well, at least until your next deadline, which is in 38 minutes and counting…

Welcome to the world of news reporting.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/07/31/online-pressrooms-surprising-benefits/</link>
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		<title>SEEing is Believing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Why doesn’t my site show up on the first page of Google? Why hasn’t my site generated any new sales leads? If you find yourself asking these questions, you are not alone. Allowing search engines to SEE your site is critical to garnering traffic. Design, coding, maintenance, and marketing of your Web site all play a major role in what we at Vitamin refer to as Search Engine Efficiency.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/07/31/seeing-is-believing/</link>
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		<title>Customer Service &#038; Expectation Management</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today’s branding landscape is inundated with so-called marketers touting individualized theories, half-baked processes and poorly translated approaches to best practices in graphic design and marketing. In many cases, marketers fashion bewildered clients by the close of an engagement – and sometimes even sooner. Such clients can often be identified by their resounding puzzlement as to how they wound up with a less-than-stellar deliverable that is a far cry from achieving their desired goals.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/07/13/customer-service-expectation-management/</link>
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		<title>The Importance of Knowing Your Budget</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Knowing what your company can afford to spend is critical for most any purchasing scenario. Shopping for branding and PR services is no different. Yet time and time again agencies and boutiques alike are faced with the prospect that does not have a budget fleshed out and ready to discuss.

Good agencies and boutiques specialize in developing custom plans and strategies designed to strike a client’s unique goals and objectives. For such agencies to truly help a potential client, understanding the budget constraint is one of the most important factors in crafting a successful program and scope of services. No two jobs are the same and pricing is seldom standardized. Firms that standardize pricing cannot be considered an ‘apples to apples” comparison to organizations that customize. Generally speaking, standardized pricing means cookie-cutter process with very little strategy and consulting to complement the final products or services delivered.
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/04/06/the-importance-of-knowing-your-budget/</link>
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		<title>Manage Crisis Before It Strikes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What happens when a popular over-the-counter medicine brand is held responsible for the deaths of innocent people? Or when an accident at work kills almost all those involved—but the evening news or daily paper reports that everyone is alive and safe?

If an organization wants to survive a crisis, it is not enough to simply have a crisis action plan. Effective crisis communications is an extension of good, ongoing communications. Many organizations neglect to regularly cultivate relationships with the media, allowing disaster to strike tenfold.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/04/06/manage-crisis-before-it-strikes/</link>
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		<title>Choosing the Right Brand Partner</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There are many variables to consider when hiring an outside partner to launch, reintroduce or fine-tune a brand. Such variables often pose a challenge to companies seeking a brand partner since many do not understand how to identify variables or why they are important. Before entrusting any outside firm with your brand, a number of items should be understood and discussed with potential partners.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/02/13/choosing-the-right-brand-partner/</link>
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		<title>Tips for Evolving Brand Identity</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The need to update or reinvent a brand is a natural evolution and usually a requirement at some point during a company’s lifecycle. Times change, products develop and missions shift direction. In order to remain pertinent, congruent and up-to-date, a company’s brand identity must adapt. Inevitably, the challenge of keeping a unique voice will present itself. With so many corporate marks, type treatments and messages already in use, and with technology making our world smaller and smaller by the year, it is becoming more difficult for the designer’s creative process to remain fresh and unadulterated. Whether intentional or unintentional, designers and agencies often cross the line of “inspired and influenced by” to “copied and taken from.”]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2006/01/30/tips-for-evolving-brand-identity/</link>
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		<title>PR: Some Get It, Others Don&#8217;t</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over time, I’ve observed executives who believe an article in the paper, a speaking engagement at a tradeshow, or a creative press release will instantly draw them into the perpetual limelight. 

Sadly, public relations is one of the most misunderstood and undervalued disciplines by top management. It’s a frightening thought considering that PR is the single most important marketing tool for building brand and steering public perceptions.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2005/12/15/pr-the-overnight-sensation/</link>
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		<title>The Limits of Client Education</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As designers and communicators, our goal for any client is to build a brand that speaks to an audience. We are hired because our clients have something to say, and they want to look great, command respect, and raise their bottom line while saying it. Given a varying set of constraints such as time, budget, and demographics, we pull together our collective experience to meet deadlines and produce stellar campaigns.

Adjustment to constraints is often a challenge, but can also lead to a more creative end result. However, there is one challenge that rises above the rest. When a client retains our expertise, we are often required to step into an additional role—educator.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.livingorganism.net/2005/12/06/the-limits-of-client-education/</link>
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