Starbucks Targets Folks Who Shun Starbucks

As a brand manager and later as global strategy chief at Starbucks (SBUX), Michelle Gass championed such popular innovations as green straws, domed frappe lids, and the Frappucchino. In August of 2009, Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz handed Gass a challenge far removed from Starbucks's core: Remake Seattle's Best Coffee, the tiny brand the coffee giant had acquired eight years earlier.

Today Seattle's Best, which has 325 namesake cafes (vs. more than 17,000 at its larger sibling), is sold in more than 50,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada, 12 times as many as a year ago. While the brand remains several years away from Schultz's billion-dollar sales target, Gass has made progress repositioning it as a middle-market offering for folks who wouldn't be caught dead at a Starbucks. As president of Seattle's Best, she's put her coffee on passenger jets, into vending machines, on cruise ships, and in more grocery stores. This month the chain will open 10 cafes inside Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) in Canada. "She's brought a lot of energy and focus to a brand that had not been performing to expectations," says Starbucks board member Olden Lee.