146 people were asked to view one of four cell phones that had buttons made to look like a smile or a frown with either upturned or downturned eyes. They were then asked to rate how much they liked that particular phone.

Those who saw a friendly face liked their phone far more than those who saw a sad, negative face.

Make it human.

‍Doing so will speed up familiarity with abstract or complex products (Hart, 2013), or for new or lonely customers (Hart & Royne, 2017).

Where can you add warm humanness to your product?

Go all in.

‍In 2009, price comparison site Comparethemarket changed its fortunes overnight by introducing Aleksandr, a talking Russian meerkat. With his own language, highly active social media presence, soap opera, merchandise and even a pseudo-autobiography, he’s one of the most talked about ad campaigns in recent UK history.

Unboxing as ‘birth’.

‍Consider Flymo's Robotic Lawnmower. Many owner reviews on Amazon gave their 'new family member' a name, but Flymo could build this smoothly into the unboxing experience. How can you design for a subtle human bond at first sight? Doing so may create a stronger Ownership Bias and may lead consumers to take greater care of their product, along with being more tolerant of any of its characterful 'shortcomings'.