How to unlock product insights from kids (aged 9-12) with voice-first U&A Research

In short

• Glaut ran a Usage & Attitude (U&A) study for Colgate Kids toothpaste, engaging 9-12 year olds directly through voice-first interviews.
• The goal: understand awareness, habits, satisfaction, pain points, and innovation ideas.
• The result: rich, emotional, structured data extracted at scale from just 5 natural-language questions.

The Problem

Understanding how Gen Alpha feels about toothpaste sounds simple but it isn’t. Colgate Kids is a child-specific product with dual stakeholders: the child as end user, and parents as decision-makers. The product must be:

• Fun and flavorful enough to make brushing feel like play
• Safe and trustworthy enough to reassure parents
• And memorable enough to build early brand loyalty

Traditional surveys don’t work here. Focus groups are slow, artificial, and rarely resonate with children. Gen Alpha talk to their phones, that’s their native format.

This made Colgate Kids the perfect demo case to show how Glaut enables:

• Voice-based qualitative research
• With children aged 9-12
• Delivering structured insights across the full U&A journey, fast.

The solution: a U&A study with Glaut

Glaut ran a Usage & Attitude study, tailored to young participants, using just 5 natural-language questions via voice interface.

The kids shared their experiences in their own words: no scripts, no rigid formats.

Glaut handled everything:

• Interview collection via voice
• Automatic transcription and cleaning
• Thematic and interpretative analysis of 100+ responses
• End-to-end insight extraction: from first impressions to future wishlists

The analysis covered the five core pillars of a classic U&A:

1. Awareness & purchase drivers
2. Usage habits
3. Likes & emotional drivers
4. Pain points
5. Suggestions for improvement

The analysis and key insights

1. Awareness & Purchase Drivers

Visual and flavor appeal dominated.

91% of children mentioned being drawn to the cartoons, bright colors, and the promise of “fun flavors.”

“The cartoons on the box caught my eye  it looked fun and safe.”

Other key purchase drivers:

• Flavor explosion (bubblegum, strawberry) vs. boring mint
• TV ads + peer recommendations from school
• Parents chose it for health and brand trust:

“My mom said it’s Colgate, so it must be good.”

Insight: Kids buy with their eyes and tongue. Parents buy with their gut. Colgate wins by appealing to both.

2. Usage Habits

Brushing routines are consistent, disciplined  and surprisingly creative.

• 100% brush daily, often twice.
• 91% use timers, routines, or efficient techniques.
• 56% play music or role-play superheroes while brushing.
• 29% brush with family, making it social.

“I pretend I’m a superhero fighting sugar monsters.”

Insight: Brushing is more than hygiene  it’s ritual, routine, and sometimes performance. Glaut picked up patterns in context, frequency, and behavioral motivators with no prompts.

3. Likes & Emotional Drivers

Flavor and fun drive satisfaction.

• 86% loved the taste  fruity, sweet, candy-like.
• 75% praised the packaging  colorful, friendly, “made for me.”
• 42% felt fresh and clean after using it.
• 34% had personal attachment to the character or design.

“It’s like having a little buddy helping me keep my teeth nice and clean!”

And when Glaut interpreted across Q3 + Q4?

Top emotions:

• Joy (85%)  “makes brushing fun”
• Trust (15%)  “gentle, safe, works well”

Insight: Colgate Kids isn’t just a product  it’s a sensory experience. And for Gen Alpha, that experience is everything.

4. Pain Points

Even popular products have friction. And Glaut helped quantify it.

• 47% noticed small annoyances  but most were fixable.
• 38% found the tube hard to squeeze, especially near the end.
• 38% reported messy overuse (classic kid behavior).
• 26% mentioned foaminess issues, like difficult rinsing.
• 8% wanted more intense flavor options.

“Sometimes it gets too foamy and I feel like I didn’t rinse enough.”

Insight: These aren’t blockers  they’re UX upgrade opportunities. Packaging and dosing should evolve with user behavior, not the other way around.

5. Innovation Ideas from Kids

When you ask kids how to improve toothpaste, you get gold.

• 69% want magical, interactive features  sparkles, music, dancing bubbles.
• 65% want new flavors  from grape to desserts to “surprise flavor mode.”
• *23% want rewards  stickers, collectibles, toys.
• 17% request better UX  pumps, no-mess packaging.
• 11% want more freshness or foaming power.

“If it sparkled and sang a song, I’d never forget to brush.”

The bottom line

This wasn't just a research demo. It was proof of what happens when you let kids speak  literally  and trust AI-native software to listen, analyze, and surface insight at scale.

Glaut helped:

• Decode how Gen Alpha interacts with CPG products
• Extract both behavioral patterns and emotional responses
• Identify quick wins (UX improvements) and bold opportunities (new flavor SKUs, collectible formats)

Here’s how you run U&A studies with Glaut AI-native software:

🎙️ Voice-first

⚡ Faster

📈 Scalable

🧠 Still deeply human

→ Want to run your own U&A study with kids, teens, or any next-gen audience? Try the interview experience.