The literature and practice of place promotion, place marketing and place branding lack a common understanding of what these three concepts mean and through what kind of policies they can be implemented. Although scholars have provided several theoretical frameworks and definitions, both scholars and practitioners (advisors, civil servants, public and private stakeholders, and politicians) often use them synonymously. This paper argues that recent developments in both theory and practice – with respect to place promotion, place marketing and place branding – provide an opportunity to address this conceptual confusion. In the academic debate, a common understanding is slowly emerging and in practice, a more integral approach is gaining ground. To contribute to these advances, we present the outline of a framework to help distinguish between place promotion, place marketing and place branding, along with a discussion on why we believe these differences (should) matter to practitioners. •A classification of place promotion, place marketing, and place branding respectively as instruments for urban policy;•A conceptual reframing, highlighting and incorporating the differences between these three instruments;•Insights into how the current conceptual confusion causes asymmetries in both theory and practice.