© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1751-8040 Place Branding and Public Diplomacy Vol. 8, 1, 6–16 www.palgrave-journals.com/pb/ Correspondence: Greg Kerr Institute of Innovation in Business and Social Research, School of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Commerce, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia. E-mail: gkerr@uow.edu.au THE BRAND MANAGEMENT OF PLACES It has been established that a place name is a brand and, similar to other types of brands, people can share a consistent group of characters, images, or emotions (Simeon, 2006) when they recall or experience the place. 1 Location or place names as brands can identify and differentiate a place from other places (see American Marketing Association, 2005 definition of brand). Brands can be used to position a product, entity or place in a market(s). Brand positioning is used by marketers to communicate value or the unique selling proposition to existing or potential customers. In some cases, the value of a brand can be calculated and become a valuable intangible asset when the acquisition of an organisation or product line is being considered. It should be remembered however, the value Original Article Challenges in managing place brands: The case of Sydney Received (in revised form): 8th September 2011 Greg Kerr career has included management roles in local government in New South Wales, Australia, followed by a career in business development. He has been a board member of tourist associations, a credit union and a chamber of commerce. In addition to lecturing in tourism marketing and marketing research, Greg has held a number of governance roles at UOW including Head of Marketing, Member of Academic Senate, and institutional representative for Australian New Zealand Marketing Academy. Currently he is Chair of the Commerce and Sydney Business School Alumni. Melodena Stephens Balakrishnan is an Associate Professor in the University of Wollongong in Dubai. She has lived in India, Taiwan, USA and Dubai and has over 6 years of corporate experience in marketing before her transition to academia. Her areas of research are destination branding, service marketing and customer relationship management. She teaches marketing for both postgraduate and undergraduate levels. ABSTRACT The purpose of this work is to introduce the concepts of brand architecture and brand portfolio followed by its relevance to place branding by way of its application to Sydney, Australia. Data were collected by way of interviews of government and business leaders as well as analysis of documents and websites. The study revealed that despite similarities to corporate brand architecture, there are complexities that are more specific to place brand management. These are the relationship between a nation brand and a city brand, the role of a city brand as a lead brand, and some of the complexities of place branding, which includes barriers resulting from long-standing political and administrative structures, the need for leadership support, the positioning of the brand in many markets and that of image management. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy (2012) 8, 6–16. doi:10.1057/pb.2011.32 Keywords: place brand architecture; place brand portfolio; Sydney