Abbott’s at-home COVID test jumps in consumers’ esteem

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans could only verify a COVID infection at a testing facility, and it often took days to receive test results.

The development of rapid, at-home COVID tests (such as Abbott’s BinaxNOW Self Kit) greatly simplified this process.

With at-home tests, families could quickly and easily test from the comfort of their own homes. These first became available to the public under Emergency Use Authorization on November 17, 2020. More than two years later, we are still using at-home tests to diagnose COVID-19 when symptoms emerge, or after a known exposure to the virus. 

Abbott’s BinaxNOW rapid COVID test rated as one of the top growth healthcare brands from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023, by brand equity growth according to QuestBrand data.

Interested in seeing where the brand rankings originated? Download our Healthcare Industry Snapshot for more brand rankings and industry insights. 

Brand equity measures the value that consumers see in a brand at a particular moment in time. It is an average of four components – brand familiarity, perceived quality, purchase consideration, and perceived momentum.

From Q4 2022 to Q1 2023, BinaxNOW experienced a +1.6% increase in brand equity, making it the fourth ranked healthcare brand by brand equity growth, trailing Quest Diagnostics (+2.9%), UnitedHealth (+2.4%), and Ancestry.com (+1.8%).

Across its brand equity components, BinaxNOW saw the greatest growth in perceived quality (+2.5%) and purchase consideration (+1.8%).

In February 2023, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) extended the shelf life of Abbott's self-test from 15 to 22-months. Abbott simultaneously confirmed that their tests can effectively detect the Omicron variant and its sub-variants (such as XBB.1.5).

BinaxNOW's concurrent expiration extension and efficacy confirmation may have improved consumers' perception of the quality of these tests. With greater confidence in thier quality, consumers were likewise more likely to consider purchasing them.

Earlier this month, the government officially ended COVID-19's three-year status as a Public Health Emergency (PHE). While the PHE is over, COVID will continue to circulate through the population, with new variants emerging overtime.

As COVID establishes itself as a regular epidemic, we will have to see whether the public's interest in home-tests remains at its current level, or if testing decreases as the world becomes more accustomed to living with COVID. Only time will tell.