It is important to note that storytelling is thousands of years old and is common to all cultures across time though it has been refined and used differently almost anywhere.

Stories are used to transmit knowledge though they have a darkside. They are used to educate and can also condition behaviours that are either good or bad.

I learned my first story from my mother and it takes about a half an hour to tell the short version.

One of my favourite stories about stories is Irish in origin–”Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”, and for those unfamiliar with multiple semantic meanings in this stories this little story is worth considerable study.

Your suggestions about how to deliver stories in accordance with your audience are good and here are two more possibilities:

Broken Telephone
I can tell a story so that it goes around the circle in the game known as ‘broken telephone’ so that the story is the same at the end as when the game started, and so can you with a little practice. This technique is useful to avoid rumours and critical in internet marketing.

Future of Search
Slight adjustments to stories provide significant visibility to search engine spiders which now employ search engine algorithms to determine the rank of your story and the value of the links and backlinks on your web or social media sites.

Stories have a rich history and create considerable value for those who carefully study them.

Cheers,
Nick Trendov
http://isemanticblog.wordpress.com
http://www.twitter.com/speedsynch