In our competitive marketplace it's so hard to give your product a strong identity, so that customers will recognise it immediately, even seek it out. How much easier if you are already known by the public.
Which is why some of our very smart entertainers are also first-class business brains. Launching a coffee brand is as competitive as it gets. When Hugh Jackman met coffee grower Dukale in Ethiopia he was moved by the quality of the coffee - and the back-breaking work and small reward the farmer earned. So in New York he started a company, Laughing Man Coffee, and a café in the Tribeca quarter which has become hugely popular.
Now Jackman has taken it a step further and partnered coffee company Keurig to sell the products world-wide.
Aussies have proved particularly good at parlaying celebrity for business success. Look at Elle Macpherson (it's hard not to). Quite apart from the huge earnings as a supermodel for 34 years, her Elle Macpherson Inc controls calendars, TV programs, workout videos, her world-ranking Intimates range, cosmetics, sun creams, and when she was breast-feeding her second baby she designed maternity bras.
Last year saw the end of her 25 years' partnership with Bendon Ltd, including chief marketing officer and creative director. She's not just The Body - when she started modelling she was studying law.
Another successful businesswoman in her own right is Gwen Stefani. Apart from her three-decade career on stage, she put her knowledge of brilliant costumes to good use, creating the clothing label L.A.M.B. She also became a spokesperson for L'Oréal Paris after creating a successful perfume range, and licenses toys to Mattel. The last Forbes income list put her at over $30 million.
I've previously marvelled at the marketing powers of Simon Cowell, and his numerous Midas-touch adventures like One Direction and Il Divo, spin-offs from the X-Factor franchise he created, besides the America/ Britain/ Australia's Got Talent spins. He's a money machine on legs.
But the star entrepreneur is not a recent phenomenon. At the end of the war, Herb Alpert created his Tijuana Brass and made millions, which he used to create A&M Records.
Robert de Niro looks always comfortable in a restaurant (except when the Mob's coming for him). Maybe that's why he has been so successful with his Nobu sushi restaurants - there are now 24 of them around the world.
Another to combine work and play is Clint Eastwood. He created his luxurious Mission Ranch Hotel in Carmel California. And later proceeded to become mayor. Amongst many other business interests, he also owns two golf courses and makes an income of $40 million a year.
But ultimately there's no beating the velvet crooner Bing Crosby. As the fee for making radio commercials for Minute Mail Frozen Orange Juice, he took shares - which eventually were worth millions, and he became distributor for the entire western United States.
Having an interest in sound technology he followed the Americans' work on magnetic tape inventions taken from the defeated Germans. Soon he was distributor for Ampex Corporation. This led him to explore the development of tape - so he was an early investor in 3M.
He bought into television stations, real estate, oil exploration. Even his ranch in Nevada turned out to have oil in it. All those quips Bob Hope makes about Crosby's huge fortune? They weren't jokes; when he died in 1977 he was said to be worth close to $100 million.
