More than one way to skin a cat

Anyone know where this saying comes from? Who would want to skin a cat in the first place?. . .The general message I took from the readings was that when it comes to segmenting a target audience, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Groups can be formed according to a variety of factors, such as health or lifestyle (or "healthstyle" as one called them) behaviors. In many cases, this may be a more relevant segmentation characteristic than the demographic traits that are commonly used. The zoology analogy was apt because the annals of biology textbooks are replete with stories of how scientists can virtually never agree on what classification schemes should be used.

The only thing I found/find a bit confusing was the order of steps. . .first we are interviewing people to determine what segmentation characteristics we are using, correct? We subsequently dividing them into groups and developing tailored messages according to those characteristics, right? And the focus group happens once the messages have been created?

Thanks. Hope you all have a great weekend!