A friend of a friend of ours is a frequent business traveler. Let’s call him Dave. Dave was recently in New Orleans for an important conference. Afterward, he had some time to kill before his flight, so he went to a Bourbon Street bar for a drink.

He’d just finished one drink when an attractive woman approached and asked if she could buy him another. He was surprised but flattered. “Sure,” he said. The woman walks to the bar and brings back two drinks. They both have a few sips…and that was the last thing he remembered.

Hours later, Dave woke up in a hotel bathtub, with his body submerged in ice. Disoriented, he looked around and tried to figure out what had happened. Then, all of a sudden, he spotted a note that read, “Don’t move! Call 911.”

On a table next to the tub was a cell phone with 911 already dialed in. Grabbing the phone, he clicked send. He relayed the series of events to the operator, who did not seem to be at all surprised. She asked if there was a tube protruding from his lower back. There was.

The operator said, “Sir, don’t panic, but one of your kidneys has been stolen. There’s a ring of organ thieves operating in this city, and they got to you. Paramedics are on their way. Don’t move until they arrive.”

Tisk, tisk…poor Dave.

Now, I must tell you that Dave is not really my friend. I don’t even know whether or not Dave exists. And I certainly can’t attest to his kidneys being ripped from his body in some bizarre hotel-room operation. Nor can I name one person who knows Dave or anyone else that experienced such an ordeal.

Dave is, however, the object of one of the most successful urban legends of the past fifteen years.

But let’s forget about Dave for a moment. Instead, let’s focus on you (no, I don’t want your kidneys). You’ve probably heard a story similar to this one. And, upon hearing it, you’ve probably repeated it to someone else…with a near perfect conveyance of the gist of the story.

The question is…why? Most likely, after hearing this story once, you remembered it…and, if you’re particularly gullible, you may have even believed it and gone so far as to avoid the darker side streets of the French Quarter as a result.

Surely you don’t have such total recall of everything you hear. For instance, did you know that GMAC Financial Services may buy a non-U.S. lender to combine with its struggling Residential Capital, and that GMAC managers plan to inject money to keep the struggling mortgage lending unit afloat? ResCap said all of this on Wednesday. ResCap’s net worth has been drifting downward to $6.2 billion as of the end of September. Its lending agreements require it to keep a net worth of $5.4 billion.

Now, pick up the phone and, without looking back, call a friend and repeat the overall gist of that last paragraph. Oh, what…you can’t? Why not?

It all comes down to the fact that some things are inherently interesting and some just…well…aren’t. In today’s market, if you want your product or service to be top-of-mind with your consumers, you need a story that will stick. A story that has to be retold ten times over before it takes hold isn’t really a very good story, now is it?

So what will make your story stick?

First, you must tell it to the right people. If you are selling high-fashion clothing to college-aged girls, and you’re advertising on a radio station only heard by older adult males, then your target might be a little off. Might want to be revisit that.

Second, you must frame your story in the proper context. Most college-aged girls that wear high-fashion clothing don’t give a rip about where the threads came from or the conditions at the sweatshop that made them. Most of the time, it will suffice if Britney or Paris is wearing something similar.

Storytelling is serious business. And it can dramatically impact the success of your business. Tell the right story to the right people and it will stick. Tell the wrong story to the wrong people, and your message will be lost. Then you’ll wind up like Dave.

Tisk, tisk. Call 911.