[clayturk]

Really? In what way? There are actually many methods available to track users of said deals and determine who is a repeat and who is a new customer.

You are missing the point of running a daily deal, it is not to increase demand so much as it is to increase exposure. Obviously no business could survive on these deals alone, which is why they are designed to only be for targeted periods of time and to targeted areas. The whole point is to get people in who are already in the market, but are tentative to try something new, or otherwise unknown to them.

Sure someone who buys a massage deal is probably going to buy a massage somewhere, but the beauty of running a deal is you have a better chance to expose that customer to your business instead of where they might have otherwise gone. The same can be said for any business.

Increasing exposure is the point. If this can be accomplished with no money up front(unlike traditional marketing) and with guaranteed usage(unlike print coupons)the business comes out ahead.