For her third and final round of interviews to become a marketing professional with the Estée Lauder Companies, Kennedy Peterson MBA ’26 was asked to come up with a presentation about fragrance for men.
“It was pretty open-ended, and I didn’t really know where to start with my research,” Peterson said. And so she reached out via email to Cornell University Library’s Management Library to request for help in gathering market intelligence.
“I listed out what specifically I needed help with: insight into male fragrance, insight into the competitive landscape, and then case studies or any other pertinent information,” she said.
Reference assistant Vicki Wang promptly responded with a trove of information, including market intelligence reports, and several articles from trade magazines as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and links to forums and blogs.
“The library provided me with so many resources where I was able to do that initial research that I needed to get done,” Peterson said. “I took some notes on that, and then that helped inform a survey that I sent out to my classmates, and then I used my survey and the research provided to me from the library to help inform my final presentation.”
Peterson impressed her interviewees and landed the marketing job. She will be joining Estée Lauder in September.
Working for Estée Lauder is a dream come true for Peterson, combining her intellectual interests and her personal and professional aspirations.
“My independent study covers the cultural impact of Black women in beauty, […] how black culture often influences many trends that beauty brands utilize but Black women don’t necessarily have that voice within corporate settings,” Peterson said. “I wanted to merge my study of women in the workplace with my passion for beauty and marketing.”
How to get help with information and data from the library
Experts across Cornell University Library are ready to support your research data needs—from working with geospatial information to dealing with topics related to business and entrepreneurship; from publishing Open Access articles and data sets on eCommons to exploring different data storage options.
For general data inquiries, reach out to the library through Ask a Librarian, or by contacting your unit library. You can also find more info about the library’s Research Data and Open Scholarship department at their webpage.
