Why 2026 is the year of strategic subtraction

credit photo: pepsico.com

Most CEOs began this year reviewing their 2025 growth charts.I began mine looking at PepsiCo.

When a global giant like PepsiCo cuts nearly 20% of products from its portfolio, this is not “trimming the fat.”It is a public admission of cognitive overload.

They allowed their brand to become noisy — overwhelming the consumer’s brain, triggering decision fatigue, and accelerating a retreat toward simpler, clearer competitors.

This is not a supply-chain story.It is a behavioral failure.

Growth is not a game of addition

It is a game of Perceptual Architecture

For the past decade, most growth strategies followed the same flawed logic:

• more variants

• more flavors

• more SKUs

• more “innovation”

  
  

All in pursuit of shelf space and short-term volume.

But the human brain does not scale the way balance sheets do.

At a certain point, choice stops being a benefit and becomes a stressor.

PepsiCo didn’t lose relevance because their products stopped working.They lost clarity because they ignored how people choose.

The innovation trap: when more destroys value

What we are seeing is the collapse of the Innovation Trap:

adding complexity to compensate for declining differentiation.

In the PepsiCo portfolio, every additional SKU diluted the core sensory and cognitive signal of the brand.Instead of reinforcing trust, familiarity, and habit, the brand created sensory noise.

And noise always carries a cost:

• slower decisions

• weaker habits

• lower pricing power

• higher operational risk

Volume is not value.SKU count is not strategy.

Our 6-Pillar strategic reading of the PepsiCo retreat:

This decision maps perfectly across the six dimensions that determine whether strategy holds or collapses.

I. SCIENCE — decision fatigue & cognitive load

By maintaining a bloated product line, PepsiCo ignored a fundamental principle of applied neuroscience: the Paradox of Choice.

Too many similar options trigger cognitive stress, activating the amygdala and leading to:

• decision avoidance

• default choices

• brand switching

  
  

In simple terms: when overwhelmed, consumers stop choosing you.

II. SENSES — diluting the sensory anchor

Each product variant added sensory interference.

In food and beverage, sensory consistency builds habit loops in the basal ganglia.By spreading sensory assets across redundant products, PepsiCo weakened the core products line identity.

They traded brand equity for SKU count — and the market pushed back.

III. SOCIAL — the trust deficit

This portfolio cut follows recalls and safety issues.

That matters.

When internal operations (R&D, safety, supply chain) fall out of alignment with the external promise (health, trust, reliability), the brand becomes fragile.

Strategic subtraction here is not elegance.It is damage control.

IV. STRATEGY — fragmentation over coherence

The portfolio was no longer coherent as a system.

Different products were solving different problems for different consumers without a unifying behavioral logic.That fragmentation weakens pricing power long before it shows up in revenue.

V. SUCCESS — margin protection, not growth

This is not a growth move.It is a margin defense move.

Strategic subtraction is often the only way to restore:

• operational control

• pricing discipline

• brand credibility

  
  

VI. SUSTAINABILITY — complexity as risk

Complex portfolios amplify:

• recall risk

• supply chain fragility

• regulatory exposure

Reducing complexity is not just efficient.It is increasingly a risk-management imperative.

This is not an isolated case

We saw the same failure pattern elsewhere:

• Victoria’s Secret stayed locked in a 1990s sensory loop while the market shifted toward self-care and inclusivity — ignoring the SOCIAL Pillar until it cost them a 50.3% drop in net income.

• Bud Light underestimated how fragile misaligned social signaling can be, wiping out 18% of valuation in weeks.

Different industries.Same failure: strategy built on outdated behavioral assumptions.

2026 elongs to companies that master Strategic Subtraction

The winners this year will not be louder.They will be clearer.

They will master:

• Cognitive Clarity — Reducing choice to accelerate decision-making and shorten the sales cycle.

• Sensory Anchors — Designing environments — physical and digital — that trigger instant trust and familiarity.

• Stakeholder Alignment — Building a Social Pillar strong enough to survive cultural volatility without brand collapse.

Where ArtVinium stands in 2026

We deliver business transformation rooted in behavioral science and P&L accountabilie. We are your partners in the boardroom.We don’t deliver creative output.

We turn:

• deep insights into measurable sales impact

• strategic clarity into pricing power

• decisions into durable value

• thinking into protectable IP

  
  

A final question for leaders

PepsiCo has already acted.

The market has already shifted.

Have you?

I am opening three Strategic Decision Sprint slots for Q1.We won’t “catch up.” We will identify your structural blind spots — and remove them.

Because in 2026, growth will belong to those who know what to remove.

APPLY TO STRATEGIC DECISION SPRINT