Abstract

This chapter focusses on the topic of iconicity in city branding. By analyzing the way in which the Dutch city of Zwolle is ‘made’ into a successful brand – an iconic Hanseatic town –, general characteristics of the cultural icon, in particular the pre-eminent visual nature of the icon and the supposed universality of the icon, are put into question. Clearly, when it comes to iconic cities, few will think of a middle-large Dutch town like Zwolle. That the branding of Zwolle as an iconic Hanseatic city is deployed with such apparent ease is telling for the hyperinflation the concept of the icon has undergone in present culture. Still, as is demonstrated, a closer analysis of such an ‘un-iconic’ icon can tell much about the construction of icons in present day commercialized culture. More broadly, this analysis sheds light on the ways in which history is revived and remodelled in contemporary culture.

Keywords: city branding, historical culture, construction of icons, virtual presence, mediated experience

Welcome to the city of Zwolle, a vibrant Hanseatic town, where life is celebrated in our historic city centre. A city populated by creative students, inventive entrepreneurs and opiniated free-thinkers. Here we believe that life becomes better being together. Within the confines of the old city walls there is a wide range of cultural and culinary discoveries on offer. Countless festivals, the culinary top of the Netherlands, striking exhibitions, the most beautiful bookshop of the country, all this can be discovered within the setting of the medieval scenery of the old Hanseatic town.