The Actor's Business Cycle – Point of Purchase
The Moment When Opportunity Knocks at the Door of Your Acting Career
Sep 25, 2009
The concept of the Actor’s Business Cycle, or ABC™, has been adapted from the corporate world. Taken step by step, these easy to understand concepts will provide you with a powerful tool to realize your career goals. By now, you’ve been promoting yourself to the people in a specific market in hopes of getting their attention, which was covered in the previous step, The Actor’s Business Cycle– Advertising: Turning Your Marketing Ideas into Show Business Reality.This is where you’ll be spending the majority of your time. Trying to get the attention of the casting director, agent, etc., in hopes of “buying” you; having them spend their time and money in order to see if you live up to your advertising. When they do, it’s called “point of purchase” and in show business it can happen in three distinct settings.
Buy, Buy, Buy
Normally, there is only one kind of “point of purchase” for a consumer; the moment when they spend their money, and invest their time, in buying and experiencing the “widget” that has been advertised to them. Yet for an actor, there are three separate, sequential, kinds of “points of purchase”; The Interview, The Audition and finally, being hired for The Project itself. Let’s briefly look at each one to see how it corresponds to the idea of “Point of Purchase”.
- The Interview: Here the agent, manager or casting director will be looking to see how you come across, what your essence is and if your resume really reflects your abilities. Even though you’re not yet working on a part in some project, never forget that they are spending their time, which is equivalent to their money, so they can evaluate you and your potential as an actor.
- The Audition: At any audition there are only a certain number of slots available, because of time constraints, for a group of actors to be seen for a certain role. So the director and casting director must make a decision as to which actors they will “buy” to fill those slots. Often, their decisions will be based on the experience they had when the “bought” you for an interview.
- The Job: The director and/or producer have hired you for the part. By doing so they are counting on you to deliver a strong performance that will contribute to the overall success of their project. Whether you are paid for the role or not, whether it is a for-profit or non-profit venture or whether it is a union or non-union project is beside the point. All projects cost time and money and you are now part of that project; your efforts have a direct effect on its success or failure.
The Tipping Point
The “point of purchase” should be seen as a tipping point; the culmination of a build-up of your advertising efforts that effects a change in someone’s mindset. They suddenly see you as being worth spending their time and money on and this is what all that advertising was for in the first place. By “buying” you, they are now giving you an opportunity to showcase you and your talents. Don’t squander it!
“Success will always be measured by the extent to which we serve the buying public.” - James Cash Penney
To read another article about this general topic, go to: At the Actor's Audition - Who is the Most Important Person in the Audition Room?
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