Not long ago in marketing, the CMO was often labeled the Chief Storyteller. Fortunately, that phase has passed. Many argue that during this fad of clever CMO titles, the role lost stature and still hasn’t fully regained its standing in the corporate hierarchy. Yet, paradoxically, brands have become even more fixated on telling their stories. The push to clearly express the brand to both customers and Wall Street is driving companies to seek people who can blur the line between fact and fiction. Forget Peter Drucker; think Joyce Carol Oates. Brands crave storytellers. This article appears in Branding Strategy Insider’s newsletter. Join the world’s smartest marketers and subscribe here to get practical insights delivered straight to your inbox. In a volatile, hyper-digital, always-on, tech-saturated environment where anyone with a sharp online persona can shape opinions and behavior, brands now see a compelling “story” as indispensable. Storytelling itself is hardly revolutionary. For as long as people have tried to persuade or teach, a well-crafted narrative has been, and will remain, the most powerful way to communicate. So it’s no shock that “storyteller” has become one of the hottest roles in business, as The Wall Street Journal notes. But what exactly is a story? The dictionary offers several definitions: a structured plot; a news report in the media; a bit of gossip; an informal account; or even a false statement…