Estée Lauder executive encourages creative marketing

It’s not everyday you see students line up an hour early in front of a lecture hall.

But on Wednesday, outside of Huntsman Hall G06, Penn students waited for Estée Lauder’s Senior Vice President Georgia Garinois-Melenikiotou, also the company’s Corporate Marketing Team leader, to speak about how the new age of technology has changed the field of marketing.

About 200 students were in attendance for Garinois-Melenikiotou’s lecture. She urged them to embrace “the era of consumer creation.”

“The world is a bit stagnant in established markets because there is a lack of ideas,” Garinois-Melenikiotou said.

The 26-year veteran of the Johnson and Johnson Company recently moved to the fashion industry and Estée Lauder. She told students to “learn and try things — make some choices, make some errors and move on.”

Garinois-Melenikiotou also talked about different types of media and their relationship with marketing. “Word of mouth is the best media because it is the most trafficked, and it is free,” the Estée Lauder executive said. She explained that the emergence of new technology including Facebook and YouTube “has enabled word-of-mouth” media.

The Marketing Undergraduate Students Establishment hosted the event. However, it was not only Wharton School students who attended.

“It’s really interesting how Estée Lauder gets its name out,” College sophomore Anita Gade said.

McKenzie Harper, a Wharton junior and vice president of events for Wharton Retail, is interested in marketing and Estée Lauder because it is such a successful brand.

“There’s a lot to learn outside of class from the different brands and executives [MUSE] has to speak,” Harper said.

MUSE’s Director of Logistics in the Professional Development Committee and College junior Lily Kim said she was pleased with how the evening went. “The event went really well because Georgia [Garinois-Melenikiotou] was a really good speaker, and we had a really sizeable audience. It is one of our biggest MUSE events so far,” she said.

Garinois-Melenikiotou not only brought knowledge of the business and marketing world with her to campus – to the delight of attendees, she also brought 100 free Bobbi Brown makeup palettes with her.

As Wharton freshman Daniel Ortiz explained that he came to the lecture to learn more about the cosmetic industry and how they market their product, a group of girls waiting in line behind him chimed in, “And there is free makeup!”

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