Daily deal sites bring flavor to naming

It’s become a household name: Groupon … the fusion of ‘group’ + ‘coupon’ makes sense on all fronts from a naming perspective.

The Groupon magic goes like this: Groupon negotiates huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. They send the deals to thousands of subscribers in their free daily email, and then send the businesses a ton of new customers.

While Groupon was first to market with their daily deal platform, the success of the business model has spawned hundreds of me-too sites and companies. The trouble is, Groupon has become so popular it’s now genericized for these savings sites, which are currently flooding my inbox.

Check out these similar offerings and their naming styles:

Living Social: A more modern, hip name but lacks the bar call when used in conversation. “I bought the yoga Groupon” just rolls better when said aloud.

Mamasource (by Mamapedia): A great site that does good too – they give back a percentage of your purchase to a school of your choice, and the deals last longer than a day. Perfect for those indecisive shoppers who just need a bit more time to make up their mind. This is more than a daily deal site, as they offer a lot of resources for moms. The name is cute, and clearly geared towards moms.

Plum District: Arbitrary name, but a fun daily deal site designed specifically towards mom. Plus, they reward you with Plum Dollars when you refer other people to the site (as opposed to other sites who reward you only when a referral makes a purchase).

Eversave: Cute, simple, descriptive name, and their logo is cute too.

Woot: Short moniker; the most emotional daily deal name. Uniquely captures the end benefit of scoring a great deal. The catchy name works well in vernacular too: “I just scored a Woot.” Woot indeed.

What are we missing? What are your favorite daily deal sites? Does the name of the site itself make you want to sign up, or is popularity driven solely by the caliber of deals offered?