When marketers think about a “brand experience,” we often jump straight to a big, bold example, such as branded stores in Times Square or something like the Virgin Airlines on-plane fashion shows with Victoria’s Secret models. Frankly, such examples scare the heck out of a lot of marketers. We wonder how our meager brands can afford the large budgets and commitments required to create an experience. But tiny investments on smaller brands can create experiences that are just as meaningful and maybe even more profitable. This weekend a simple recipe provided me with a great example.

About three years ago our President, Jay, rewarded me and the rest of his C-level team with a membership to the St. Supery wine club. This moderate-sized winery in Napa Valley has a great range of high-quality wines. Jay had recently joined the wine club and wanted us to share his experience of cooking the featured recipe that is paired perfectly with each wine. He has kept us on the club for three years now, and while I’ve enjoyed the wine thoroughly, I have never actually cooked a featured recipe—until this weekend.

The latest wine shipment of a 2006 Malbec came with a recipe for wild mushroom risotto that sounded amazing. Combined with the fact that my wife and I had a subpar Valentine’s Day due to mutual illnesses, I figured it would be a good idea for me to do some cooking. I’m not a frequent chef, but I do enjoy rolling up my sleeves in the kitchen every once in a while. Cooking this risotto dish was a lot more work than I imagined—I frankly had no idea how risotto was made, and my arms got quite a workout as I got the rice to absorb 5 cups of beef stock in nearly 40 minutes of constant stirring!

We put the girls to bed and enjoyed the dish with a lovely salad, a date movie (Love Actually), and the bottle of St. Supery Malbec. The meal, wine, and movie were all great together, and for a few hours we forgot about our laundry list of chores and stresses.

Thus, St. Supery brought me more than a great wine: Its simple recipe unlocked an experience of cooking and enjoying a lovely meal with my wife. And I cannot wait for the next wine and recipe shipment. The cost was merely that of a simple, folded newsletter tucked into the shipment box.

I plan to spend more time thinking about how other brands (especially my clients) can similarly do simple things to build experiences like this. It also would be interesting to test what kind of brand loyalty results. My hypothesis would be that St. Supery club members who cook the recipes are far more likely to stay in the club and buy more wine for themselves, while encouraging others to join, too.

What can your brand do to stage an experience? It might be simpler than you think.