• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 9, 2020

The Local Search Association (LSA) on Thursday rebranded, reflecting how local businesses continue to change -- not only the 30 million U.S. small businesses, but those that serve them with media, technology and services.

Localogy, the new name for the trade association, aims to more accurately reflect the focus of the nonprofit to help small businesses modernize processes through data and technology. 

The definition of “local” continues to evolve through the use of technology, says Bill Dinan, president of Localogy -- and with it the name of the nonprofit.

“The focus was on local and search,” he said. “Now the organization goes beyond the marketing side of business to include all aspects such as operations."

Companies that once only offered search media and services now offer social and analytics to small businesses, he said. But the focus is not only on services, Dinan says, but also on business models as media companies turn into tech companies.

Companies are changing their services, which in turn changes their business and revenue models.

Member businesses like media companies that are transitioning into technology companies because of the adoption and demand for SaaS delivery. 

“The companies that once chased monthly return on revenue now use annual return revenue, year-over-year,” he says. “These two models must learn how to work together. We’re all a [software as a service] company now.”  

To reflect the change, teamwork determined the best name as board members brainstormed. The options to reflect that change ran the gamut from a focused definition of local such as Localogy to abstract terms such as Purple.

Then members tested the names with help from a focus group. ”The questions we asked the group were things around how they felt about the names in relation to some of the business strategies,” Dinan says. “It gave us pretty good feedback.”

In the end, representatives from DAC, Thryv, Facebook, Fairway Group, Gannett/USA Today Network, Google, hibu, Microsoft, NinthDecimal, Vivial, Yelp and Yext voted on the suggested names and determined that Localogy was the best choice.