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Tananya “Fah” Suteerachai turns Thai stories, from Mae Nak to mango sticky rice, into a fragrance brand built for global reach.
In this Future List series, different paths of work and creativity across disciplines come into focus. The series follows people who stand out in their careers by carving their own direction in shaping Thailand’s future. We celebrate people who look at ordinary Thai life and see something more. That way of seeing continues to amaze us, as they elevate everyday moments into cultural storytelling and turn familiarity into new forms of value through reinterpretation.
Today, through the lens of business growth, we look at Tananya “Fah” Suteerachai, Managing Director of Journal, a Thai beauty and fragrance brand that has grown into a multi-hundred-million-baht business within seven years.
Beneath that growth lies a clear intention: a commitment to placing Thai culture at the forefront, reimagining it through scent and storytelling and turning everyday Thai life into a cultural language.
The Early Experiences Behind Journal
Before Journal, Fah studied Journalism at Thammasat University then continued with a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management in the United States. Though environmental issues interested her from a young age, career opportunities in Thailand remained limited after graduating.
Instead, she returned to another long-standing interest: media and advertising. More than two years in the advertising industry shaped her understanding of branding, product design and creative storytelling, which later became an important foundation behind Journal.
The idea for the brand also began during the years Fah and her husband spent abroad. At the time, her husband often struggled to find souvenirs that genuinely reflected Thailand in a meaningful and contemporary way. Many products felt generic or lacked a deeper cultural story. That experience sparked the idea of creating a brand that represented Thailand through stronger storytelling and design.
After returning to Thailand, her husband opened a design agency with the belief that many Thai local products already carried quality and potential, but lacked presentation to elevate them further. The aim became to help SME brands build stronger identity and value through branding and packaging design.
This work later led to a connection with a perfumer, both sides sharing the same belief that Thai products deserved wider international recognition. That vision led to the launch of Journal in 2017, with the intention of creating a Thai perfume brand that felt contemporary while remaining rooted in local culture.
How Culture Becomes Product Direction
From the beginning, the challenge was how to make Thai identity feel modern, accessible and relevant beyond Thailand without losing its roots. For Fah, the answer came through strong storytelling, quality and a clear sense of identity.
Since the brand started from Fah and her husband’s own experiences abroad, that personal connection continues to shape its direction. The perfumes move beyond scent alone and instead bottle memories, places and familiar parts of Thai life into each fragrance. Thai icons, everyday experiences and cultural references become part of how each product tells a story.
At the centre of the brand’s identity is the use of local ingredients such as agarwood and natural essential oils. Fah draws from traditional Thai perfume techniques, including scent extraction processes that take around three to six months, before blending them with contemporary fragrance development. The result carries a scent profile that feels layered, natural and closely tied to its source materials. Rather than following global perfume trends, Fah looks toward details already present within Thai everyday life and reinterprets them into fragrance.
One example is the Mae Nak scent, inspired by Thailand’s well-known ghost story. It is an unusual direction for the world of beauty, but Mae Nak exists in Thai culture as more than a ghost figure. For many locals, she also represents love, longing and devotion.
The fragrance interprets Mae Nak through the idea of enduring love. Rose appears first as a symbol of romance, followed by lime inspired by the iconic scene where Mae Nak stretches her arm outside the house to pick a lime. Familiar cultural imagery transforms into something emotional and sensory rather than purely visual.
The same approach appears in Nang Ram, inspired by Thai dancers. Instead of presenting them through traditional elegance alone, the fragrance centres on confidence, sensuality and presence. Cherry opens the scent for vibrancy and attraction, followed by rose, which references both beauty and the flowers traditionally placed on the chada headdress. Agarwood sits at the base, evoking the atmosphere of traditional Thai homes and wooden architecture.
Mango Sticky Rice shifts the focus to everyday experiences. It draws from one of Thailand’s most familiar desserts and reframes it as a scent, reflecting how daily life carries cultural meaning. The notes of ripe mango, sticky rice and coconut milk move beyond a gourmand profile and become symbols of comfort, joy and shared memory.
Marketing as Brand Growth Strategy
In the early stage, Fah focused on international tourists as her initial core audience. The first store opened at One Nimman in Chiang Mai, a location she saw as a strong destination for visitors. At that time, entering major shopping malls in Bangkok felt almost impossible for a new brand, except through short-term pop-ups. After the opening, response grew quickly. The brand gained strong traction among Chinese customers, who shared reviews online, helping the brand spread organically without an advertising budget. Because of this, she expanded into Bangkok through department stores to reach a wider audience and first-time customers.
Storytelling becomes one of Fah’s strongest tools in building the brand, shaped by her background in journalism and years working in media and advertising. She connects with younger audiences who look for individuality and identity. Through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, she draws on visual communication and emotionally driven content to extend these narratives beyond the product itself.
@journalboutiqueth Ep.1-12 เหตุผลที่ทุกคนต้องลองใช้ JOURNAL สักครั้ง ผสานการบำรุงจากธรรมชาติ และหอมติดผิวจริง✨🛁 #SenseofJOURNAL #JOURNALPODCAST #Journalboutiqueth #bodyoil #podcast
♬ เสียงต้นฉบับ – Journal Boutique
Another key strategy lies in how every touchpoint becomes part of the experience. From store design to staff training, Fah places strong focus on how the brand is felt, not only sold. She often reminds the team that the goal is to create an experience. They introduce each scent through its story and allow customers to try them. Some return later, some do not, but the experience stays.
This approach has become central to the brand’s growth. In recent years, the business has recorded strong momentum, with revenue rising from THB 26 million in 2022 to 66 million in 2023 and reaching 169 million in 2024. In 2025, the brand grew further to THB 500 million,, marking a significant shift in scale.
Scaling Thai Identity Into Global Reach
Journal now operates across 23 branches nationwide in department stores alongside distribution in more than 40 multi-brand beauty stores across Thailand, strengthening accessibility across the country.
Her vision has expanded Journal beyond Thailand, with a focus on key markets in Asia, the UAE and Europe. Online channels support wider reach and long-term expansion. The next phase points toward a potential IPO within five years alongside a growing regional presence.
Fah’s journey does not sit in theory or branding language alone. It sits in how she turns lived experience into something people can hold, smell and remember. Journal has grown into a business, but her direction stays rooted in detail, culture and instinct rather than trend. What stands out is how she keeps Thai identity present in every step of that growth without losing its texture along the way.
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