MAM
Why storytelling is the most powerful marketing tool we underuse
Insights by Glad U Came founder & CEO Maddie Amrutkar.
MUMBAI: The marketing ecosystem has never been more advanced. Real-time dashboards decode consumer behaviour instantly. Platforms promise reach, scale, and optimisation at the tap of a screen. Yet, despite all this progress, what truly separates brands that are remembered from those that are merely noticed is not technology, it is storytelling.
Not the performative kind. Not glossy brand films that look beautiful but say very little. But real storytelling, the kind that creates context, builds meaning, and allows people to see themselves within a brand’s journey.
In the race for scale, storytelling is often sidelined. Speed replaces depth. Virality becomes the goal. Campaigns are optimised to perform, not to endure. Somewhere along the way, brands forget that consumers are not just impressions on a dashboard but emotional beings shaped by narratives, memory, and belief.
Stories create meaning, not just visibility
Modern marketing is engineered to be seen. Visibility today is easy to buy. Meaning, however, remains priceless.
Storytelling moves communication beyond product features and price points. It frames a brand as something that has observed real consumer pain points and chosen to respond with intent. It connects what a brand does to why it exists and how it fits into a larger cultural or emotional context. Without this framing, even the most innovative products risk feeling transactional.
People don’t engage with brands because of features alone. They engage because the brand stands for something they recognise or aspire to. Stories are what give that recognition shape.
We mistake storytelling for format
One reason storytelling remains underused is that brands often reduce it to a format, a brand walkthrough video, a founder interview, or a feature-heavy launch film. But storytelling is not an asset; it is a discipline.
It doesn’t belong to one medium or moment. It is about structure, continuity, and intent across every consumer touchpoint. A social media post can tell a story if it carries context. A press release can tell a story if it links action to purpose. Even a product launch can become narrative-led if it reflects evolution rather than announcement.
At Glad U Came, we’ve seen storytelling emerge most powerfully in spaces brands often treat as purely tactical like celebrity gifting. Across fashion, beauty, and food, a well-crafted narrative can transform a product handover into a cultural moment. When a denim label aligns with youthful stardom, or a clean beauty brand frames science through personal routines and real personalities, the result isn’t just visibility, it’s continuity. Communication begins to feel less like promotion and more like participation in a story audiences already want to follow.
Performance pressure has replaced connection
Brands aren’t entirely at fault. Today’s markets are crowded, fast-moving, and relentlessly competitive. With clicks, conversions, reach, and engagement dominating boardroom conversations, connection often becomes collateral damage.
Stories don’t always deliver instant gratification. Their impact is cumulative. They work linearly, embedding themselves over time, which makes them harder to justify in performance-driven environments.
But storytelling builds emotional equity. It helps audiences understand not just what a brand sells, but who it is. And that understanding is what sustains relevance when trends fade and platforms evolve.
Consistency is where storytelling earns its power
A story told once is content. A story told consistently becomes identity.
Strong brands don’t reinvent themselves with every campaign. They evolve. They revisit the same values and themes from new angles, allowing audiences to grow alongside them. This consistency builds familiarity, and familiarity builds trust.
Audiences remember more than brands assume. They notice tonal shifts. They recognise inconsistency. Storytelling provides the discipline that keeps communication aligned over time.
Looking ahead
As marketing continues to evolve, tools will change and metrics will multiply. But the human need to find meaning before making a decision will remain constant.
Storytelling bridges the gap between message and memory. Brands that prioritise purpose over noise, and clarity over spectacle, will be the ones that endure.
Storytelling is not an optional layer in marketing. It is the foundation we often overlook—and the advantage we gain when we use it well.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
