Similar but not exactly the same is a precise jargon for SMEs and Imers. SMEs excel in managing and developing products while Imers have the advantage of expanding and amplifying market demand. However, both have the same motive to trade goods and reap the biggest turnover. Therefore, the existence of SMEs and Imers are equally important in order to move the wheels of the national economy.
Basically, each entity has its own strengths and weaknesses. It takes self-reflection between entities to learn and reflect on each other. Imers and SMEs vary only in the initial point of their careers. Imers begin their career by selling and advertising other people’s products, while SMEs tend to sell their own goods. Imers do not always have the upper hand and neither do SMEs always spearhead the economy. Imers escalation is possible to reach up to the Mainstream level which is the highest level in SMEs life stages. It infers that Imers will be fully transformed into SMEs when they could jump up to the peak stage of Imers. Both SMEs and Imers have the same opportunity to reach the Mainstream level.
Based on the research that we have conducted, the essential problem of most SMEs, especially at the Newcomers and Artisan levels is the motivation to expand the use of digital technology to develop their business. It is also uncommon for SMEs to be confined by their own ideals. This difference is the gap for SMEs to take lesson and reflect from Imers, especially regarding on the mindset, for instance as below:
- Courage to broaden their insight in terms of marketing and advertising.
- Ability to maximize the use of digital technology
- High determination on seeking the winning products.
- The ability to robust and formulate the winning products
- The capacity to expand the network and cooperate with the suppliers, fellow Imers, and supporting businesses such as logistics, warehouse, production, marketing and others.
- The courage to allocate many measurable budgets for advertising purposes.
Imers affiliate with strong determination, risk-taker, creative and strategic. Their hesitation to invest a large chunk of capital, take big risks and do not stop to learn from experience and mentors like no one else. Those particular behaviours have been shaped since there is no significant term in their dictionary as “unsold goods burden”. The focus of the Imers daily goal is seeking winning products to advertise. The planning span is quite short, which is the courage to decide on the advertising strategy for each day in order to process the dropship.
Despite the lack of technology deployment and idealism of SMEs, to a certain extent SMEs also have advantages that should be used as inspiration for Imers. Imers are synonymous with internet advertisers. As explained above, the Imers characterisation corresponds to recklessness, absence of identity, and lack of vision. Therefore, there are still many shortcomings for Imers to dominate the market and learn about certain skill sets such as:
- Has uniqueness and product identity
- Have the confidence to establish a brand from scratch
- Oriented towards maintaining good customer relationships from the beginning.
For the sake of escalating the SMEs capacity to compete globally, Imers behaviours could be taken as the inspiration for the SMEs to excel themselves. On account to embrace all the economic actors to maximize the potential benefits, it is important for SMEs to seize the internet as a promotional agent and figure out the success stories of Imers. Imers actors have a deep understanding about their target consumers and develop precise strategies to influence these consumers to buy products from Imers. Above those all, the capital of confidence in finding a product niche and maintaining good relationships with consumers is the advantage of SMEs. Of course, the character of SMEs is what makes their business sustainable and long-lasting. Hence , it’s important for Imers to shift from the Hit and Runner spectrum immediately and start orienting to maintain good relationships with consumers so that the business has a longer lifespan.
The value in SMEs and Imers can be determined as the inspiration for each other. There should be no sense of superiority between the two, because each entity is responsible both as the teachers and students. If each entity is able to inspire each other and accelerate themselves to be better, then ideally SMEs and Imers are easier to upgrade to the next stage. If SMEs and Imers can collaborate with each other in developing a business, there is no doubt that their products can be recognized in a wide area, marketing strategies that are targeted and measured with superior quality and value products, and most importantly, businesses can survive in the long term.
