I think the reason that I talk about genre fiction is that the genre label is usually used as a way of conveying to the reader an expectation of the formulaic nature of the book and its derivative and predictable nature. I'm not sure how you'd convey that expectation without resorting to a lot of words otherwise.

I take your point about vodkas, though. It's a very intriguing way of framing the question. You can distinguish between plastic-bottle vodkas and glass-bottle vodkas as a start. But then you have vodka sold in glass bottles that is still pretty bad. People who drink Grey Goose or Imperia or, better yet, my current favourite, Jewel of Russia, will find some of those glass-bottle vodkas to be no better than a Popov. Yet they are all called "vodkas".

I'm going to need some time (and ???????) to sort this out.