We were happy to see the latest Cone study — it presents the most compelling evidence to date for the importance of social responsibility as a major (and growing) brand differentiator. In short: the successful brands of the future will be those that do good and proudly tell the world about it.

Cone’s study found that Americans’ expectations of companies are at an unprecedented high — 83% say companies have a responsibility to help support causes. Furthermore, a full 87% of people (up from 65% in 1999) claim that they’d be “likely to switch from one brand to another brand that is about the same in price and quality, if the other brand is associated with a good cause.” And another dramatic recent shift: 72% of employees wish their companies would do more to support a cause or social issue — a 38% increase since Cone’s last survey in 2004.

The numbers are in: Americans are no longer satisfied with business as usual. This continues the story told in Environics’ Millennium poll: 89% of all Americans believe that companies need to go beyond their historical role of making a profit, paying taxes, employing people, and obeying all laws — companies must also set higher ethical standards and help to build a better society. (In fact, even back in 1999, when the Millennium poll was done, a full 35% of Americans advocated for companies prioritizing social goals above financial ones.) As the income gap in the US continues to soar to heights not seen since 1928, people are finally getting fed up with companies that put pure financial gain above all else — at the expense of the numerous environmental and social stakeholders. And as transparency is becoming an important cultural value, people are becoming empowered to vote with their dollars for the companies that actually want to do good in the world.

There’s a cultural paradigm shift afoot, and corporate irresponsibility — one of the many sad side effects of unprincipled capitalism — is no longer acceptable to an increasingly savvy public. Now that mainstream companies — from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart, from Nike to Timberland, are raising the bar by doing the right thing (or taking steps to do so), we can look forward to a new era of healthy competition — except this time, it’ll be about who can be the most socially responsible and get the word out most effectively.