I hate to use the term attribute here, because I don't think I'm talking about attributes as they are known in ZC.

Let me give a scenario, then I'll ask my question.

I stock, for example, ribbons that go with specific products. When I get in a product grouping, I create a sub-category for that grouping, and the ribbon is included there - the ribbon's master category.

But, I'd like to be able to "display all ribbons" in the store, regardless of what sub-category they are in. I'm thinking of doing this with product links to a sub-category called "Ribbons". But this will take a lot of manual effort, so I thought I'd see if there is a better way. I'm wondering if I can assign an attribute to the product that tells me what type of product it is - ribbon, flower, etc. Then do a search based on attribute? Not all products will have an attribute like this - there are only about five things that are scattered throughout the store that I would also like to pull into together.

Does this make sense? Assuming it does, how would you suggest I do this?