Things can only get better for Gordon Brown... here's how

The Liberal Democrat: Vince Cable, Deputy Leader

Brown has tried various brands which have not worked for him. There was Mr Prudence as Chancellor, which worked for a while but has worn off. Then Mr Decisive in summer with floods and foot and mouth but that went when he didn't call the election. There was Mr Everyman, trying to be popular, having tea with Thatcher. People are no longer sure of who he actually is, which is the cause of all this drift and hopelessness. He must reassert the principled views on social justice and poverty, which no one doubts he is committed to. He doesn't appear to have the skills a modern politician needs to communicate on TV. Brown comes across as aloof, detached and mechanical. But he needs to be careful: if the electorate sense he's producing another personality they'll be even more confused and disillusioned.

The body language expert: Judi James

Incongruous would be the word to describe the Prime Minister's body language. I don't know whether he is being told to be like that but it's obvious he acts in a way that is simply not natural to him. Take Mr Brown's smile. It's what we would call a lightning smile, it doesn't come naturally. The Prime Minister is a baleful sort of character, a grizzly bear, and yet he's trying to mask his real characteristics.

He has quite a few nervous tics that would get rid of. I'd start with his compulsion to straighten his papers before every speech. He has nasty habits like constantly mopping the sweat from his brow. Ultimately Mr Brown needs to let more of his rough side show. The things his spin doctors consider to be faults are his unique selling points.

The comedian: Jenny Eclair

The only possible thing he could do is to start wearing a kilt. It's the only chance he has got. Women are very easily distracted and Gordon's got a decent pair of legs so it's the only way forward.

The Tory: Ann Widdecombe

Absolutely nothing can improve his image. He has been well and truly rumbled. Everything is a problem from the economic disaster onwards. There is nothing he can do now and I look forward to him no longer doing it.

The personal branding consultant: Louise Mowbray

Brown can without any doubt be re-branded. The key thing is brands have got to appeal to us as people – they have to be compelling. They must be interesting, different, memorable, all the words Simon Cowell tells his contestants after each round on American Idol. So we need to find Brown compelling and right now we're finding it difficult. The public need to buy into him emotionally. We're finding it difficult to relate to him as a human being.

He needs to dig deep to find out what those who will keep him in office will find compelling about him. But it has to be authentic. He can't put on a different outer covering and make us believe the inside is different. He must deliver consistently and make sure he shows us, rather than tells us, about this new brand.

He needs to make it well known all the time – sometimes subtly and sometimes more obviously. Right from the start Brown has always left us wanting to understand him more.

But I don't think anyone's a lost cause, there must be sides to his character we haven't seen and don't understand. What they are I wouldn't know unless I'd worked with him but that would be my advice to his people.

The Labour rebel: Peter Kilfoyle

When you are heading for an electoral iceberg you don't change the captain, you change direction. It's about delivering real benefits, things that really matter, particularly to our natural supporters.

We still have to get things right about the 10 pence tax rate and about the retrospective vehicle excise duty.

Mr Brown's image will be transformed when he delivers things that benefit Joe Citizen. This is about the Government as a whole. The problems at the moment are a real wake-up call, top to bottom. We have said it time and time again, but it is about delivery.

The former tabloid editor: Phil Hall

Gordon has a personal profile so low that he has to re-brand himself through his policies. He needs to get four or five policies which are clear and can be shown to be working. So if he wants more police on the beat he needs to show a policeman working on the beat whose father and grandfather was on the beat too. It needs to be human and emotional and show the Government is making a difference rather than constantly worrying about soundbites. It will take 12 months of focusing on these policies and not being concerned with what the papers print the next day. At the moment the public don't believe the Government is doing anything, all they see is Brown looking grey and beaten on TV. Health queues, school exams, discipline; let's see these policies in operation. The Tories have media experts and Gordon's got civil servants – it's men against boys. Alastair Campbell was derided but understood the media. If politicians want recognition they must play by the media's rules, not the rules of politics. The media want stories that grab attention and if the politicians produce that they will get coverage.

The former Labour minister: Denis MacShane

Gordon Brown has taken a whole set of big decisions such as nuclear power, 42 days, planning and defying calls for a referendum on the European reform treaty. These are decisions which I think are in the broad national interest although they are not in tune with the politics of the times.

It would be fatal to have Brown take a bit of charm lipstick and paint it on, hoping that will change things. We have to hope that the public see the value of taking big national decisions.

The fashion designer: Wayne Hemingway

The whole concept of re-branding a politician in fresh clothes is pathetic. It's got to be about policy and attitude. We need someone who shows conviction in his ideas and somebody who is not afraid of the media, or of failure, or of upsetting some people. If he's got a real belief that something is right, he should do it. I don't think he's imposed what I hoped he would, in terms of social justice and the Labour Party he's always talked about. Instead it's all just wishy-washy. We need radical solutions and someone to take risks. He should have said I don't care if you're going to criticise me, I believe in this. I think that kind of politics has died. What's the point of staying in power and not doing what you want to do? He'd be better off getting kicked out for trying to do what he believed was right. There's too much fear and I did not imagine him to be somebody who was afraid.

The Labour spin doctor: Lance Price, former Blair strategist

The biggest problem Brown has stems from his reluctance to take difficult decisions. The first indication the public saw of that was during the election speculation last year. When you are chancellor you can hide behind walls and people rarely see you, but you can't do that as a prime minister and his indecision over whether to call a general election exposed that fault.

It is salvageable but it's not going to be easy. The great thing about politics is its unpredictability. No one could have guessed 12 months ago that the Labour Party would be where it is now. But Brown needs to do something pretty dramatic. It didn't work for Hillary Clinton in the end but the footage of her crying during the primaries made people take note. Brown needs to reassure people that he's not indecisive or glib and that he's in politics for the right reasons.

The PR expert: Mark Borkowski

He needs a charisma implant. There was this fantastic honeymoon period where he demonstrated everything that we hoped would be robust about the New Labour project. He sailed in on a wave of "there is something different here" but from the moment he didn't call an election, it all went downhill.

He needs a good line in gags and a lighter approach with the general person on the street. Without it he will go further downhill. There are consultants that can help, especially in the US. He has no modern sense of communicating to an audience, and it's a great shame that he hasn't got a group of people around him that do. Everyone from the Blair ship seems to have jumped to the Cameron camp.

The problem is he has no ability to connect in small talk, no charisma and no sense of humour. There are places you can go that could help him. If you look at what he's up against – people like Barack Obama, even John McCain, they can all deal with the small things in life.

The design critic: Stephen Bayley

Branding depends on the quality and desirability of the original product. In Brown's case that's profoundly sub-optimal. Re-branding Brown would be like chrome-plating slurry: difficult and useless.

The fashion critic: James Sherwood

Sartorially speaking, Mr Brown needs to put some snap in his garter. The sloping shoulders give the PM the appearance of a man carrying the weight of the world, in a style statement of an overweight Atlas dressed by M&S. A grand Savile Row house, such as Huntsman, may go against every socialist bone in Mr Brown's body, but the heroic shoulder line and the trim waist of a bespoke suit would project confidence. The PM's hair should be grown to Byronic proportions to give him an air of doomed heroism, for doomed he most certainly is.

And the view from people who have met the PM

* Dave Seddon, the head teacher of Baxter College, Kidderminster, was among senior school staff honoured at a Downing Street reception for their work in turning round struggling schools.

"Gordon Brown is certainly different from the austere person that performs when the cameras are there," he said. "I have also met Tony Blair and his charisma shines out on television. That doesn't happen with Gordon Brown. But when you are there without any cameras around he is very amusing and very warm – he sounded more sincere and more human."

* Rizwan Aboo is a football coach at the south London Street League scheme which works with disadvantaged young people. Mr Brown visited a training session in March. He said: "We were running a normal training session in Kennington Park. It was a great day. I didn't know what to expect. He spoke to me and talked to three of the clients. He told us which team he supports – I can't remember which one now. He was really trying to engage with people. He came across as a really nice guy. He is big, broad shoulders and carried himself well. We told the guys not to go up and shake his hand, but he went over and shook them all by the hand."

* Sabine Ernst, a senior cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital, London, met the Prime Minister when he opened its £2.2m research laboratory. "When I heard that Gordon Brown was going to come to open our magnetic navigation catheter laboratory for people with advanced heart disease I was very impressed," she said.

"My initial impression of Gordon was that he was a very serious person. I was worried about how I would cope with it – this is not my home country and it's not my home language. I was waiting last in the line in front of the lab and I was introduced by our director. Gordon was told I was German and had been here for nine months. Gordon remarked that the German team was playing tomorrow in Euro 2008 – he was very good at putting people at ease."

* Pauline Byers went to Downing Street in May after being chosen as a finalist in the nurse of the year awards for her work on using Caribbean food to help people with diabetes. She said: "I had no preconceived ideas. I find him very warm and very knowledgeable. He knew about my work and particularly identified with what we were doing and was very comfortable about the NHS and his experiences of it."

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