Challenges in managing place brands: the case of Sydney

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