ground lift? thats a little obtuse dont you think?
what about hot plastic? Or bleeding hot plastic! or plastic Heat?
perhaps, but you get to the point where you gotta stop making adjustments and just roll with it.
besides, they don't have to know what 'ground lift' means in the electronics/audio world.. it's more of a play on digging, bringing things out from the underground .. old vinyl, indy artists etc..
ground lift? thats a little obtuse dont you think?
what about hot plastic? Or bleeding hot plastic! or plastic Heat?
perhaps, but you get to the point where you gotta stop making adjustments and just roll with it.
besides, they don't have to know what 'ground lift' means in the electronics/audio world.. it's more of a play on digging, bringing things out from the underground .. old vinyl, indy artists etc..
Don't do it dudes!
I'm not wrangling for a credit here or anything, but I just told my girlfriend what you guys came up with and she blurted out "That's a horrible name!"
I'm not wrangling for a credit here or anything, but I just told my girlfriend what you guys came up with and she blurted out "That's a horrible name!"
I have to agree, unfortunately.
thank you for your/her honest feedback. the fact that she felt so strongly about it speaks volumes, but at least it solicited a reaction. but really dude, females aren't our target market.
looking back, i see i wrote the name was to be for a store but as we went thru the selection process it became clear that in order to not exclude other facets of our future plans, the name needed to be non-specific to a record store (hot wax, dripping vinyl, blazing discs or whatever)
we could always operate the real world store under another name if need be. if we use the name your girlfriend comes up with, she can get credit too
not to mention "females are not our target audience" is a bad foundation to start any buisiness plan with.
and this knowledge is coming from where?
seriously B, how many females do you know who 'dig'.. and i'm not talking dj stef, anna.. real world girls that you know. now weigh that against all the dudes you know who dig.
i understand you don't like the name but my guess is that you don't fully understand what kind of name we were looking for, especially when you think 'cake-aholic' is a better choice.
seriously B, how many females do you know who 'dig'.. and i'm not talking dj stef, anna.. real world girls that you know. now weigh that against all the dudes you know who dig.
I'll give shout outs to Trish, Elaine, Mimi La Twisteusse and my girlfriend (and her twin sister - and her little sister). It don't look like much females dig from what you see on Soulstrut, but that's because the ladies prefer to hang out on Friendster rather than with a bunch of record geeks.
seriously B, how many females do you know who 'dig'.. and i'm not talking dj stef, anna.. real world girls that you know. now weigh that against all the dudes you know who dig.
I'll give shout outs to Trish, Elaine, Mimi La Twisteusse and my girlfriend (and her twin sister - and her little sister). It don't look like much females dig from what you see on Soulstrut, but that's because the ladies prefer to hang out on Friendster rather than with a bunch of record geeks.
are you talking girls who look for rare soul/funk or girls who want the new gwen stefani CD?
either way, i'm completely aware that females buy music and some even 'dig' like big dudes but as a businessman i had to look at what our core market is and follow the money.
like i said b4, females aren't our target market but that in no way means that we'd alienate females buyers or treat them differently than any other customer.
i hope that some other strutters weigh in, because i'm finding it really difficult to imagine that "Ground Lift Records"[/b] doesn't sound good.
not many replies gave a name that was interchangeable, meaning it would work for a record store as well as it would work for a vintage electronics store or distribution warehouse etc... that's why "surface noise" was so perfect, it had musical connotations but could be club, record label etc...
for what it's worth, TREW, I think Surface Noise is 1000% better than ground lift.
Also, a point of advice, again, for whatever it's worth: while most of your direct customers may not be women, their influence cannot be overestimated... trust me, dudes bring their girlfriends to dig with them, girls write for magazines and papers, girls promote parties... and yes, MORE girls than you might think dig for records... all of these things tie into your business, so don't be so dismissive. As a new business you should be a sponge to new ideas and different perspectives.
Take Hans_Lucas for instance: his girlfriend said, "God, that's a horrible name." Now think if he was a customer. You don't want that happening...
for what it's worth, TREW, I think Surface Noise is 1000% better than ground lift.
Also, a point of advice, again, for whatever it's worth: while most of your direct customers may not be women, their influence cannot be overestimated... trust me, dudes bring their girlfriends to dig with them, girls write for magazines and papers, girls promote parties... and yes, MORE girls than you might think dig for records... all of these things tie into your business, so don't be so dismissive. As a new business you should be a sponge to new ideas and different perspectives.
SN & GL were equal in our eyes, the deciding factor was how ground lift relates to our 'mission statement'..
as for your advice about being a sponge, neither hans or his GF presented me new ideas or perspectives outside of their personal dislike of the name.
JP: i appreciate your advice but i don't believe we're alienating girlfriends, female media members or promoters by being named GROUND LIFT. but maybe you're seeing a side i'm blind to...
no one, and i mean, no one i know, M or F, has EVER not patronized a record store because of the name.
but from what i'm hearing, it's like because if the name doesn't work for 'you' ('you' in the larger sense), we're doomed to fail no matter how ill our selection is.. i personally dislike about 80% of the names of my most frequent dig spots. but there's more to a name than a name.
i dunno dudes, if you like the name, cool. if not, cool. but you best believe that when our doors open, or when the first 12" drops, or when you see the initial run of emo-sized t-shirts, you'll be like "DAMN SON! GROUND LIFT HAS THAT HEAT"
Take Hans_Lucas for instance: his girlfriend said, "God, that's a horrible name." Now think if he was a customer. You don't want that happening...
i'm not following you. are you saying that hans' GF will make him not want to cop raers because she doesn't like the name??
Hey man it's all good. #1, as for the "sponge" comment, I just meant that when someone says "that name sucks" or "my girlfriend hates it" to just be open minded. Your attitude kind of seemed like "well, your girlfriend won't be buying our products"... but to me that is not the right attitude to take (partially because girls WILL be buying your products). I would just be open to everything right now.
So with girlfriends, yes I would be sensitive to that. Having a store that's entertaining to girlfriends as well as male customers will extend the amount of time your male customers can spend buying stuff. How many times have you seen girls hustling their dudes out of the shop? I know that's happened to me plenty of times.
As to names, I would argue that you as a collector/dealer have a different perspective from a lot of your consumers. You're just going for the records, but never underestimate the surface reaction people have to catchy names and logos.
So with girlfriends, yes I would be sensitive to that. Having a store that's entertaining to girlfriends as well as male customers will extend the amount of time your male customers can spend buying stuff. How many times have you seen girls hustling their dudes out of the shop? I know that's happened to me plenty of times.
not that it relates too much the store's name, but that is a brilliant point. how-to-keep-the-girlfriends-who-don't-care-about-rare-lou-rawls-drum-breaks-happy-in-the-meantime..
never underestimate the reaction people have to catchy names and logos.
A name can truly can make a huge difference. You may very well be selling the best records in town, but consider the fact that when people spread the word to friends the name is what sticks in their minds. My personal opinion is that Ground Lift doesn't have a catchy ring to it.. I understand what it is refering to (digging). but it took me a few seconds to catch the connection. Somehow it just doesn't click for me. And I'm afraid that the name won't stick in peoples' minds.
But that's just my opinion. I like how you solicited ideas from the board, though, that was fun.
So with girlfriends, yes I would be sensitive to that. Having a store that's entertaining to girlfriends as well as male customers will extend the amount of time your male customers can spend buying stuff. How many times have you seen girls hustling their dudes out of the shop? I know that's happened to me plenty of times.
not that it relates too much the store's name, but that is a brilliant point. how-to-keep-the-girlfriends-who-don't-care-about-rare-lou-rawls-drum-breaks-happy-in-the-meantime..
Magazines, books, t-shirts in female sizes, paintings, posters, pins, vintage clothes & shoes... make it a store that's interesting to more than just record dorks.
I think when creating a business you should take into account any and all factors that might effect sales,traffic,marketing etc. I would think you'd try to market to the widest array of people but that's just me.
I understand this is a niche market to some degree but even nerds have girlfriends.
I'm not really digging the name to be honest with you. I think it sounds too plain.
I guess there's a fine line between going all out "DUSTY GROOVE" or the total other way.
I'm not really digging the name to be honest with you. I think it sounds too plain. I guess there's a fine line between going all out "DUSTY GROOVE" or the total other way.
that fine line is something fierce!
this is in response to secret chimp too:
i'm glad you both said that it's not catchy enough/too plain because.. seriously. that's kinda what we were going for, a catch-all, non specific name that could apply to any facet of our venture but also have some sort of musicial connotations..
when it all goes down, the store could always be named 'surface noise', which as a record store name is kinda fresh but we felt the parent company name should apply to any branch..
not to flood you with posts...but why does it neccesarily have to be record related.
you can basicly call it anything and put records under that right?
I was thinking the same when I switched through all the name suggestions.
The baddest thing you could do is to limit your business before it even started !!
With records there??s a whole lot of other stuff going on and I would closely think about the options for future sections of other stuff (maybe you will be even forced to some day).
Fat black plastic would be a cool name. even though its already a strutter's handle.
Your physical store is alot different than your online market. you need a place that invites people to come in, even if they're not neccesarily "diggers". Ive seen more than a few of these specialty breaks type spots come and go, and you really need another hook to get more than just the jansport crowd to frequent.
If you can sell someone on an image, or a lifestyle, or do something to make the shopping process an activity you will do better.
I forgot to add though, a serious congratulations on getting your dream off the ground! I can remember you talking about it when we went digging in L.A. and its cool to see you actually making it happen.
Im genuinely thinking about what would bring you the most sucess, i might not have all the right answers, but at least give my thoughts some consideration.
Much luck whichever the case! if Im ever in chi town im gonna come through and take the wall down!
this is verb, AKA the other guy from Breakz4dayz along with TREW. I met some a yall at the Uptown Soulstrut gathering.
I've been apart from the Soulstrut forums for too long, and i've decided to join my fellow collectors of raer jawns.
anyway, i just wanted to add some additional clarification about the Groud Lift name.
As for right now, Ground Lift is the name of our LLC. It's not a physical record store, and it actually is not even a virtual record store. Breakz4dayz.com will remain the name of our internet record outlet and it now exists under the umbrella of Ground Lift LLC. We feel it's a suitable name for the parent company under which we could operate any number of enterprises from a magazine to a record store to a clothing line etc. For the time being, we will use it as the name for our office which we want to open to the "public" (read: people like all of you) by appointment only. Were we to open a record store or something, we might not even call it Ground Lift. It's like Viacom owning Blockbuster. Viacom is a wack name for a video store, but it's fine for a mega-corporation. Whereas blockbuster is much more suitable for the rental of videos
i think a lot of the static about it is coming from the fact that the name is not being placed in a proper context. Everyone here thought they were submitting names for a record store, and TREW and I were actually looking for a concise, somewhat general name for our LLC. We're sorry about the confusion and appreciate everyone who submitted (i haven't laughed that hard in a while) and appreciate everyone stating their like and/or dislike of the name. Hopefully, we here at Ground Lift will have the opportunity to serve you in the future.
Comments
perhaps, but you get to the point where you gotta stop making adjustments and just roll with it.
besides, they don't have to know what 'ground lift' means in the electronics/audio world.. it's more of a play on digging, bringing things out from the underground .. old vinyl, indy artists etc..
Don't do it dudes!
I'm not wrangling for a credit here or anything, but I just told my girlfriend what you guys came up with and she blurted out "That's a horrible name!"
I have to agree, unfortunately.
thank you for your/her honest feedback. the fact that she felt so strongly about it speaks volumes, but at least it solicited a reaction. but really dude, females aren't our target market.
looking back, i see i wrote the name was to be for a store but as we went thru the selection process it became clear that in order to not exclude other facets of our future plans, the name needed to be non-specific to a record store (hot wax, dripping vinyl, blazing discs or whatever)
we could always operate the real world store under another name if need be. if we use the name your girlfriend comes up with, she can get credit too
you can basicly call it anything and put records under that right?
WHy not Cakeaholic. I think that would be fly.
SECRET SPOT. Or Secret Squirrel. Actually, secret squirrel would be the best one.
or, I forget who suggested it, but "Cop that disc" would be kinda hot too.
and this knowledge is coming from where?
seriously B, how many females do you know who 'dig'.. and i'm not talking dj stef, anna.. real world girls that you know. now weigh that against all the dudes you know who dig.
i understand you don't like the name but my guess is that you don't fully understand what kind of name we were looking for, especially when you think 'cake-aholic' is a better choice.
all 3 are too specific to either 'hiphop' or 'records'. i should mention that we had already contemplated and passed on those too.
I'll give shout outs to Trish, Elaine, Mimi La Twisteusse and my girlfriend (and her twin sister - and her little sister). It don't look like much females dig from what you see on Soulstrut, but that's because the ladies prefer to hang out on Friendster rather than with a bunch of record geeks.
are you talking girls who look for rare soul/funk or girls who want the new gwen stefani CD?
either way, i'm completely aware that females buy music and some even 'dig' like big dudes but as a businessman i had to look at what our core market is and follow the money.
like i said b4, females aren't our target market but that in no way means that we'd alienate females buyers or treat them differently than any other customer.
i hope that some other strutters weigh in, because i'm finding it really difficult to imagine that "Ground Lift Records"[/b] doesn't sound good.
not many replies gave a name that was interchangeable, meaning it would work for a record store as well as it would work for a vintage electronics store or distribution warehouse etc... that's why "surface noise" was so perfect, it had musical connotations but could be club, record label etc...
Also, a point of advice, again, for whatever it's worth: while most of your direct customers may not be women, their influence cannot be overestimated... trust me, dudes bring their girlfriends to dig with them, girls write for magazines and papers, girls promote parties... and yes, MORE girls than you might think dig for records... all of these things tie into your business, so don't be so dismissive. As a new business you should be a sponge to new ideas and different perspectives.
Take Hans_Lucas for instance: his girlfriend said, "God, that's a horrible name." Now think if he was a customer. You don't want that happening...
SN & GL were equal in our eyes, the deciding factor was how ground lift relates to our 'mission statement'..
as for your advice about being a sponge, neither hans or his GF presented me new ideas or perspectives outside of their personal dislike of the name.
JP: i appreciate your advice but i don't believe we're alienating girlfriends, female media members or promoters by being named GROUND LIFT. but maybe you're seeing a side i'm blind to...
no one, and i mean, no one i know, M or F, has EVER not patronized a record store because of the name.
but from what i'm hearing, it's like because if the name doesn't work for 'you' ('you' in the larger sense), we're doomed to fail no matter how ill our selection is.. i personally dislike about 80% of the names of my most frequent dig spots. but there's more to a name than a name.
i dunno dudes, if you like the name, cool. if not, cool. but you best believe that when our doors open, or when the first 12" drops, or when you see the initial run of emo-sized t-shirts, you'll be like "DAMN SON! GROUND LIFT HAS THAT HEAT"
i'm not following you. are you saying that hans' GF will make him not want to cop raers because she doesn't like the name??
So with girlfriends, yes I would be sensitive to that. Having a store that's entertaining to girlfriends as well as male customers will extend the amount of time your male customers can spend buying stuff. How many times have you seen girls hustling their dudes out of the shop? I know that's happened to me plenty of times.
As to names, I would argue that you as a collector/dealer have a different perspective from a lot of your consumers. You're just going for the records, but never underestimate the surface reaction people have to catchy names and logos.
not that it relates too much the store's name, but that is a brilliant point. how-to-keep-the-girlfriends-who-don't-care-about-rare-lou-rawls-drum-breaks-happy-in-the-meantime..
A name can truly can make a huge difference. You may very well be selling the best records in town, but consider the fact that when people spread the word to friends the name is what sticks in their minds. My personal opinion is that Ground Lift doesn't have a catchy ring to it.. I understand what it is refering to (digging). but it took me a few seconds to catch the connection. Somehow it just doesn't click for me. And I'm afraid that the name won't stick in peoples' minds.
But that's just my opinion. I like how you solicited ideas from the board, though, that was fun.
Magazines, books, t-shirts in female sizes, paintings, posters, pins, vintage clothes & shoes... make it a store that's interesting to more than just record dorks.
holla at records
I understand this is a niche market to some degree but even nerds have girlfriends.
I'm not really digging the name to be honest with you. I think it sounds too plain.
I guess there's a fine line between going all out "DUSTY GROOVE" or the total other way.
However it goes man, I wish you luck.
that fine line is something fierce!
this is in response to secret chimp too:
i'm glad you both said that it's not catchy enough/too plain because.. seriously. that's kinda what we were going for, a catch-all, non specific name that could apply to any facet of our venture but also have some sort of musicial connotations..
when it all goes down, the store could always be named 'surface noise', which as a record store name is kinda fresh but we felt the parent company name should apply to any branch..
ha!
"one minute i'm eating my teddy grahams, the next minute this shit happens"
How many girls dig? Down and dirty under the tables? Not many. How many buy music? Most. I don't know about Chi, but in P-town women dj.
You are working hard on picking the right name, which is a good thing. Now that you have picked one, test it before locking it in.
I thought the best suggestion was Spinning Wheel, which works on every level and is has a Chicago tie in.
Dan
I was thinking the same when I switched through all the name suggestions.
The baddest thing you could do is to limit your business before it even started !!
With records there??s a whole lot of other stuff going on and I would closely think about the options for future sections of other stuff (maybe you will be even forced to some day).
Good luck
Seb
Fat black plastic would be a cool name. even though its already a strutter's handle.
Your physical store is alot different than your online market. you need a place that invites people to come in, even if they're not neccesarily "diggers". Ive seen more than a few of these specialty breaks type spots come and go, and you really need another hook to get more than just the jansport crowd to frequent.
If you can sell someone on an image, or a lifestyle, or do something to make the shopping process an activity you will do better.
I forgot to add though, a serious congratulations on getting your dream off the ground! I can remember you talking about it when we went digging in L.A. and its cool to see you actually making it happen.
Im genuinely thinking about what would bring you the most sucess, i might not have all the right answers, but at least give my thoughts some consideration.
Much luck whichever the case! if Im ever in chi town im gonna come through and take the wall down!
this is verb, AKA the other guy from Breakz4dayz along with TREW. I met some a yall at the Uptown Soulstrut gathering.
I've been apart from the Soulstrut forums for too long, and i've decided to join my fellow collectors of raer jawns.
anyway, i just wanted to add some additional clarification about the Groud Lift name.
As for right now, Ground Lift is the name of our LLC. It's not a physical record store, and it actually is not even a virtual record store. Breakz4dayz.com will remain the name of our internet record outlet and it now exists under the umbrella of Ground Lift LLC. We feel it's a suitable name for the parent company under which we could operate any number of enterprises from a magazine to a record store to a clothing line etc. For the time being, we will use it as the name for our office which we want to open to the "public" (read: people like all of you) by appointment only. Were we to open a record store or something, we might not even call it Ground Lift. It's like Viacom owning Blockbuster. Viacom is a wack name for a video store, but it's fine for a mega-corporation. Whereas blockbuster is much more suitable for the rental of videos
i think a lot of the static about it is coming from the fact that the name is not being placed in a proper context. Everyone here thought they were submitting names for a record store, and TREW and I were actually looking for a concise, somewhat general name for our LLC. We're sorry about the confusion and appreciate everyone who submitted (i haven't laughed that hard in a while) and appreciate everyone stating their like and/or dislike of the name. Hopefully, we here at Ground Lift will have the opportunity to serve you in the future.
Sincerely,
Verb
Breakz4dayz.com, a Ground Lift Company