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. After Step 2 – “Research and Development”, you’re going to need to create your new “widget”, that is…the new YOU. Keep in mind that the intended consumer of your “widget” will respond more readily to certain elements of your “essence”; this is the combination of your physical appearance, your personality and your vibe. This mixture will be different with each market; what they’re looking for in the theatre will be different from television, etc.
Positioning Yourself in the Market
The act of creating your “widget” and figuring out how you want it to be perceived is called, positioning. To get you started, here are four questions you need to answer:
- What exactly are the particular elements of your “essence” that they will respond to? Your ability to do many different accents will be a plus in voice-over and narration work; or because of your quirky looks or personality you’ll most likely be reading for character roles in film and TV; or your height, weight and voice make you a natural leading man.
- How will you showcase those elements so they can be readily identified? The pictures you use should be selected based on the needs of each market and the way you want to be perceived in it; leading lady, character actor, ingénue, etc. Also, you can create a different resume for each market to reinforce the particular message you want to get across.
- What is the all-purpose image of the other “widgets” in your category of this market? Take a look at the other actors who get called in for the auditions: their wardrobe, their hairstyle, their “essence” and anything else that catches your attention. What do these things tell you?
- By comparison, how can you make your “widget” look and feel unique? There are a million leading ladies out there. The way you present your look and the story your resume tells will be the initial way you get out your core message. You’ll follow this up later on through other forms of advertising.
What is Marketing?
So now let’s turn to the act of marketing itself. First, a definition: Marketing (v) -The total of activities involved in creating a unique product/service and transferring it from the creator (you) to the consumer (the director, producer, casting director, etc.). The important part of this definition is the phrase “total of activities”; it is a three-part process.
- You take the product/service, that means you, and discover the attributes that separate it from its competitors; i.e. - What makes your “widget” unique and different?
- Once you have found or created these differences, you must be able to show them in some way, which in turn becomes your credentials. You do this initially through your picture/resume but also through any piece of advertising you send out.
- You must take those differentiating ideas and turn them into a coherent, easy to understand message that you’ll use as the basis of your advertising campaigns. For example, in the theatre market; Sean Pratt is a classical trained leading man type who, because of his essence, tends to play “the Good Guy” roles of doctors, cops and priests. Then, all the marketing and advertising must in some way reinforce this message.
Now, Ponder This
- How are you going to get your "widget" to this new market/ marketplace? To a voice-over producer...with an audio CD; to the modeling agency...via comp card; to the Los Angeles casting offices for pilot season...by financing an extened stay there during the casting period.
- What kind of marketing campaign will you create to advertise your widget to this new consumer group? Internet-based? Postcards? Flyers? Newsletters? Or some combination of all of them?
To read the next article in this series go to: The Actor's Business Cycle - Advertising
Since it’s always best to start at the beginning, read “The Actor’s Business Cycle Step 1 – The Examination of the Marketplace”, to get caught up on this important series.
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