But Nissan spends buckets of yen on this stuff because otherwise, if you heard the name Nissan, you wouldn't have a clue that it's yet another car company trying to soak you out of almost a year's worth of wages for about four years worth of transportation.
Naming your company after your own surname is often due to some stupid sense of family pride -- or just blatant arrogance. (Sort of like the title of this column has my nickname in it, you get the idea.) But this type of business naming is loaded with risks. The largest risk is that some relative that shares the same name as your company will go out and do something really stupid and end up in the headlines of the paper every day. Because of one boneheaded act, your company's years of efforts to get consumers to positively identify that name with a product or company could be lost forever.
Just ask former President Carter. The man probably would have been the country's greatest President. But no, he spent half his time trying to keep his brother Billy from getting more press than he was getting.
And so it seems to be with "Capano." Before this summer, if you mentioned the name Capano, I would have thought of the Charcoal Pit. But hey, I'm not normal. To most people in Delaware, mention Capano in the past and they'd think of the firm that builds, paves over, and destroys numerous acres of Delaware landscape. BUT NOT NOW! If you mention the Capano name to Delawareans, they instantly think about the case of Anne Marie Fahey, her disapearance, and wondering if Thomas J. Capano is somehow involved in it.
If you've been away from Delaware from a while, you may not have heard of this story. It's been a big news here lately, over-shadowing yet another company-name-trashing-individual, John E. DuPont, that has been accused of murdering wrestler named Davod Schultz at duPont's Foxcatcher estate in Newtown Square. Anne Marie Fahey worked as a scheduling secretary for Governor Carper. That is, until June 27. That was the last time anyone saw her. She was last seen with Capano in a restaurant in Philadelphia. Since then, the News-Journal has been breaking new bits about the case almost every day. The FBI has searched Capano's home. Excerpts of Fahey's diary that mention Capano have been published. The FBI has been searching area landfills in connection with the case. Capano was seen at a local hospital, apparently giving a blood sample for DNA testing. We've even been treated to little personal tidbits about they guy, like how he was dating Fahey for three years but has only been separated from his wife for a year.
According to a story published in the Philadephia Inquirer on Sunday, August 4, 1996, Fahey wrote in her diary about Capano: "What a controlling, manipulative, insecure, jealous maniac." Ouch.
Now, Capano has not been charged with a crime yet, let alone been tried or convicted. We, the public, seem to overly enjoy jumping to conclusions about these things. Innocent until proven guilty is only some technicality that concerns the court system. But regardless of whether or not Capano is somehow involved, you just have to admit that one thing is true. The Capano name has most likely been tarnished in the minds of many Delawareans.
At least that's my opinion.